RUSH: This energy situation is a puzzling one. And it’s not exciting. This is unacceptable. This is all being created by Obama policy. We’re abandoning standard tried-and-true forms of energy production in place of this quest for nonexistent energy, green energy, windmills and so forth and so on. Try some of the headlines: ‘New Mexico Declares State of Emergency Over Natural Gas Shortage.’ But there’s more of that than meets the eye. Thousands in New Mexico are without natural gas service. The New Mexico governor has declared an emergency, orders government offices closed due to the natural gas shortage. Now, this is a deja vu moment. If we want to see our future, if things don’t change at the top, it’s right here, summer or winter. We better be praying for only mild springs, falls, and so forth forever, because the left is getting very close to cutting off the primary provable sources for heat and cooling.
January 24, 2008, Governor Richardson — that would be Governor Bill Richardson — issued executive order 2008-004. This executive order from the New Mexico governor imposed a six-month moratorium on new oil and gas drilling in Santa Fe County and the Galisteo Basin. The six-month moratorium will be in effect through July 24th of 2008. As stated in the executive order, ‘the governor is committed to ensuring the health, safety and welfare of all New Mexicans and to protecting the natural and ecological riches of the state while supporting much needed economic development.’ And now those same people are freezing to death because of a natural gas shortage. There is no shortage of natural gas. We’ve got it all over the place. It’s like we don’t have a shortage of oil but there is a moratorium on dealing with it, getting it, producing it, refining it, in the Gulf of Mexico.
Now, the new governor, Susana Martinez yesterday ‘declared a state of emergency, ordered government offices be shut down Friday and urged schools to ‘strongly consider’ remaining closed for the day. … Martinez declared a state of emergency for the entire state, urging residents to turn down their thermostats, bundle up and shut off appliances they don’t need for the next 24 hours.’ Natural gas shortage. There’s no shortage of natural gas, is the point. They just had Governor Richardson put a moratorium on it for a while because, of course, what in the world is deadly about natural gas? You can’t smell it. It’s not a carcinogen. We’re cutting off our nose to spite our face or whatever. ‘Texas Residents Asked to Limit Use.’ ‘Outage in Arizona.’ ‘San Diego Shortage.’ ‘Usage at Record High in Utah.’ ‘California Utility Told to Cut Pipeline Pressures.’ ‘Natural Gas Futures Gain on Speculation of Inventory Deficit.’ ‘Shell Oil Postpones Drilling in the Arctic.’ ‘Democrat Senator blames the White House.’
‘Mexico Cancels Offer to Send Electricity to Texas.’ And you know why? Because they don’t have it to share. They need it for themselves. They finally figured out, you know what? It’s cold in Texas. It’s also cold here. So they’re gonna use the electricity for their own purposes in Mexico. ‘Obama’s Blocking Of New Power Plants Triggers Nationwide Blackouts.’ This is a question. And from the Heritage Foundation, 103 permits in the Gulf of Mexico are being held up. These are permits to drill for oil. And of course the accompanying natural gas that goes along with it.
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RUSH: ‘Mexico Cancels Offer to Send Electricity to Texas.’ They temporarily suspended this because of severe cold in Mexico’s own territory. ‘Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission had said Wednesday it had agreed to transmit 280 megawatts of electricity to Texas.’ That’s okay. I mean Texas was not really pleased to be on the receiving end of it in the first place. Obama, speaking of energy, has tapped a big name — this is a Fox News story — to help sell it to the private sector, energy innovation. ‘On the same day that Mr. Obama rolled out his plan to make commercial buildings twenty percent more energy efficient by 2020 –‘ That’s easy. You just put the federal government in charge of the thermostats and everybody either sweats to death or freezes to death. Anyway, ‘the White House announced that ‘The President has asked President Clinton, who has been a champion for this kind of energy innovation, to co-lead the private sector engagement along with the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, headed by Jeff Immelt.” So Jeffrey Immelt and Bill Clinton are in charge of energy innovation, as delegated by President Obama.