Salazar has a Pinocchio moment

Yesterday morning Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on the Department of the Interior’s Fiscal Year 2012 Budget proposal what the Washington Examiner characterized as “a whopper.” The video shows him telling it.

In response to a question from Rep. Fleming about the Obama Administration’s de facto moratorium on Gulf Coast oil and gas production, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar claimed that domestic oil production had increased since 2008.

“The statistics, Mr. Congressman, are absolutely wrong. When you look at the production within the Gulf of Mexico, even in the midst of the national crisis of the Deepwater Horizon, the production has remained at an all time high and we expect that it will continue as we bring new production online,” said Secretary Salazar.

Jim Adams, President and CEO, Offshore Marine Service Association (OMSA) said: “It is Secretary Salazar who is absolutely wrong. As can be seen from the Department of Energy’s EIA Short Term Energy Outlook (see chart), offshore oil production in the Gulf has been on a steady downward slide since the Obamatorium went into effect last year.  Without a change in policy, production will continue to decline sharply.”

“It is self-evident,” said Mr. Adams, “that without exploration there will be no oil production.  President Obama’s energy policy is killing jobs, raising the price of fuel and making Americans vulnerable to political instability in the Middle East.

March 4, 2011