Governor Mary Fallin today released the following statement regarding President Obama’s remarks on energy policy during a visit to Cushing, Okla.: “I am happy that President Obama took the time to visit Oklahoma today, and I welcome him to our great state. Oklahoma offers a fine example of how a thriving energy industry coupled with pro-growth policies can lead to low unemployment and a strong economy. Energy exploration and production is an important part of our history and our current success, and it is my hope the president was able to learn something from our many industry experts during his time here.
“In his remarks today, President Obama said he supports an ‘all of the above’ energy strategy. As evidence of that support, he cites the Cushing pipeline, an important project being developed and paid for by TransCanada, a private sector corporation. In this case the president’s ‘support’ means that he will not actively use the federal bureaucracy to sabotage this project as he has so many others.
“This kind of intermittent ‘support’ for the industry is not good enough. The president is here in Oklahoma taking credit for successes in oil and gas production that his administration has nothing to do with and, in many cases, continues to actively obstruct.
“The northern leg of the Keystone XL Pipeline, for instance, would result in the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars of investment. Those jobs and dollars have been lost because the president has not had the guts to stand up to environmental extremists in his own party who view traditional fossil fuels as a hazardous waste instead of a valuable asset.
“Regulations handed down by the EPA continue to be increasingly onerous and expensive obstacles to producing American-made energy. Permits for drilling continue to be delayed. Meanwhile, gas prices are rising, American families are feeling the pinch, and potential opportunities for job creation are being thrown away.
“The fact of the matter is President Obama’s rhetoric is matched with a policy record that is aggressively anti-energy and continues to stifle economic growth in Oklahoma and throughout the nation. The president urgently needs to reexamine his policies, not deliver more speeches taking credit for the accomplishments of others.”