Rep. Doc Hastings (WA) published a piece in the Washington Times today entitled, "Obama's Budget Reveals True Agenda on Energy." Please see an excerpt here:
For the past two years, President Obama has given Americans mixed signals regarding his position on offshore energy production.
Sen. Obama opposed it. Candidate Obama changed his mind when gas prices soared. President Obama has stalled efforts to expand it, but then seemingly promoted it in this year's State of the Union address. Understandably, his ever-changing position has left Americans confused and frustrated.
Yet we may have just discovered a valuable piece of information to help solve this puzzle. Hidden deep within the president's budget proposal released on Feb. 1 are numbers that reveal his true intentions.
Read the rest here.
The budget shows that revenues collected from new offshore leasing will decline over the next five years - from $1.5 billion in 2009, to only $413 million in fiscal 2015. If the president planned on expanding offshore drilling, revenues would be increasing, not decreasing.