“Oil and gas” on The Daily Caller

It is not easy to talk about the importance of a strong domestic oil industry in the wake of the tragic incident in the Gulf of Mexico. We do not yet have all the information about what caused the explosion, but we do know that it could have and should have been prevented. (more)

Yesterday, President Obama proposed plans to open offshore drilling and exploration along the southern Atlantic coast, a portion of the eastern Gulf of Mexico and some of the coast of Alaska. This is a welcome step forward by the previously reluctant administration. Remember that President Bush lifted the ban on drilling offshore in June 2008 and the Congress followed by passing legislation in October 2008 when the cost of gasoline hit $4 per gallon. Having advocated for seven years for the federal government to allow Virginia to safely explore for oil and gas off our coast, it is good to see the president following the law. (more)

Can the Obama administration’s desperate attempts to cover their true far left nature with centrist rhetoric and promises become any more transparent? Yesterday, the President announced “an expansion of offshore oil and gas exploration” in selected areas off the coasts of the United States. The President claims this announcement was made “in order to sustain economic growth and produce jobs,” but nobody believes him. Just take a quick look at today’s newspaper reporting: (more)

Retirement funds are in trouble across the U.S. Like most private sector nest eggs, state pension funds have not performed well over the last two years and, as a result, are now critically underfunded. The forecast is already bleak and will only further deteriorate if new energy taxes proposed by President Obama’s administration are put into effect. (more)

This week as Congress debates a $15 billion jobs bill aimed at getting more than 15 million unemployed Americans back to work, there is this story out of Janesville, Wis.: An autoworker was so desperate to hold onto his job that he followed it when it moved to another state 500 miles away. (more)

Abstract: Russia‘s interests in Iran fundamentally diverge from those of the United States. Russia considers Iran a partner and de facto ally in its plans to reshape the power balance in the Middle East and dilute U.S. influence in the region. The U.S. should expect only token assistance from Russia in countering the Iranian nuclear threat. Instead, the U.S. needs to develop a broader policy that convincingly argues that Iran will lose–even if it obtains nuclear weapons and that clearly demonstrates to the Russians that the risks of betting on Iran outweigh the potential rewards. (more)