Romney: Energy independence by 2020.....what a joke

[spanone]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The campaign for presumed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney laid out a plan Wednesday for America to be energy independent by 2020.
On an embargoed conference call with reporters, Romney staffers touched on familiar themes they said would wean the country off imported oil and spark an economic boom at home.

Namely, they called for fewer regulations and more drilling.

The staffers pointed to the revolution in drilling technology in recent years that's unlocked an energy boom in this country, and contrasted that with President Obama's support for renewable energy, which they said has failed to pay off.

"There's incredible potential for the development of these resources, but it's something President Obama has been doing his best to stifle," said Oren Cass, Romney's domestic policy director. "Governor Romney embraces this revolution."

http://money.cnn.com/2012/08/23/news/economy/romney-energy/?source=cnn_bin

[TheMastersNemesis]

1. This Policy Would Be Suicide For The Planet

After reading some articles on "global warming" and that is exactly what it is. "Climate change" is a euphemism politically correct joke as far as I am concerned. Based on some recent articles we are supposedly dangerously close to what climate scientists think a a tipping point that will make the warming climate really dangerous.

Romney's plan would pretty much scrap virtually "all" clean energy initiatives. He would take out all the tax credits for wind and solar. And is even against better car mileage from what I can tell.

I am just stunned in disbelief. Bush will seem like FDR compared to this pair.

[spanone]

2. it's as if it was written by the energy corporations....which it probably was

“What Governor Romney is proposing is that state governments, which already control the development of energy resources on their own and private lands within their borders, would also control the development of energy resources on federal land within their borders,” said Romney’s domestic policy advisor Oren Cass in a briefing call with reporters to preview Romney’s energy speech slated to occur later today in New Mexico.

In addition to shifting the power of energy development exploration on federal lands to the state level, Romney’s policy also calls for opening more offshore drilling options, starting off the coast of the battleground state of Virginia as well as the Carolinas.

Romney’s plan also calls for the pursuit of a “broader North American energy partnership” with Canada and Mexico that would include building the Keystone pipeline, a development Romney calls for frequently on the stump while simultaneously criticizing the Obama administration’s rejection of the pipeline.

Asked how the campaign will respond to criticism that Romney’s plan favors the oil industry, members of which helped Romney raise $7 million in a single day of fundraising in oil country in Texas earlier this week, Romney senior adviser Ed Gillespie said that those who will benefit from “unleashing” more energy resources are “consumers and families and workers who will get the benefit of more jobs and more affordable energy.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/romney-to-reveal-new-energy-policy/

[sadbear]

3. So Romney is embracing fracking, huh?

[spanone]

4. i imagine that's the 'revolution in drilling technology' they are speaking of.....

[liberal N proud]

5. Off topic, but what the hell is an embargoed conference call?

And Romney's energy plan is the same old Drill Baby Drill along with Tear Down this mountain attitude that we have seen from every oil company backed politician since the 60's

[sadbear]

8. That was my first thought, too.

Embargo is a loaded word, isn't it?

[Hugin]

6. Drill, Baby, Drill 2.0

Different stall, same pee-yew.

[hatrack]

7. IT. IS. NOT. GOING. TO. HAPPEN.

This country is never going to be "energy independent", with the exception of one possibility - a plague or economic collapse so severe that we're all back to firewood and kerosene lamps, which is unlikely.

There's not enough of anything - coal, oil, gas, water, uranium, anything - within our borders to make this even remotely possible under a BAU scenario.

And even setting aside simple facts like having 3% of proven global oil reserves within our borders, the economic growth paradigm by itself ensures that it is a physical and economic absurdity.

It is not going to happen, and I'd be reacting the same way if President Obama said it.