Purposely trying to destroy the economies of Republican-leaning States?

by Eric Dondero

As the Wall Street Journal notes this morning, Obama in his State of the Union address to Congress, promised "new offshore areas for oil and gas development." Now, just a few weeks later he is completely reversing his stance. This, despite the fact that a FOIA request clearly shows the American public overwhelmingly in favor of drilling.

From the WSJ:

Congress's ban on offshore drilling expired in September 2008, and a Bush Administration plan for leasing the energy-rich Outer Continental Shelf was due to begin this year. Yet within a month of taking office, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar halted leasing by extending the public comment period by six months. When that period ended last September, Interior said it would take "several weeks" to analyze the results. It has yet to release a summary.

Newt Gingrich's American Solutions group used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain Interior emails suggesting that the public comments ran 2-to-1 in favor of drilling. Instead of acknowledging this, Mr. Salazar last week informed Congress he was scrapping the Bush plan and that leasing will not begin for at least another two years.

The biggest losers? Virginia, Utah, Wyoming and Alaska; coincidentally all Republican states. Newly-elected Republican Governor Bob McDonnell ran on a strong platform plank of pushing for offshore drilling. Utah is being hammered by the administration for something called "onshore" drilling:

Interior canceled oil and gas leases on 77 parcels of federal land in Utah (a handful have since been reinstated). Mr. Salazar also yanked eight parcels from a lease sale in Wyoming. Several weeks ago a leaked Interior Department memo disclosed plans to have Mr. Obama use executive power—under the Antiquities Act—to designate 10 million acres of western land as "monuments," putting them off-limits to energy development as well as current timber or mining work.

Bush fought for offshore drilling; Obama kills it off with one swift flick of the pen

And then this frightening assessment from the Washington Examiner:

Drilling was supposed to begin this July. But Salazar said he intends to discard the 2010-2015 lease plan developed by the Bush administration in favor of a new plan that won’t even go into effect until 2012.

“Secretary Salazar has finally confirmed what had long been feared – that the Obama Administration has no intention of opening up new areas for offshore drilling during his four-years in office,” said Rep. Doc Hastings, the ranking Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee.

So for the next three years and probably more, trillions of dollars in domestic energy assets will remain untouched while billions of dollars more are spent on foreign oil.

But it could be even worse than just Republican-leaning states losing out. Rush Limbaugh said on his radio show yesterday that like a 60's radical Obama was trying to "overthrow the United States." Limbaugh has been promulgating the idea for months now, that every action Obama has been taking has been with the expressed purpose of destroying the United States economy and rebuilding it upon a socialist model.

With news like this, it's getting harder and harder to doubt Limbaugh.