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Tuesday night, following a tour of the Gulf Coast area, the President of the United States addressed the nation regarding the state of the BP oil spill. In his speech from the Oval Office, President Obama spoke regarding our nation's dependence upon oil and how we need to break that dependence.  During his speech, the president made a statement that was blatantly false. The president noted, "We consume more than 20% of the world's oil, but have less than 2% of the world's oil reserve. And that's part of the reason oil companies are drilling a mile beneath the surface of the ocean -- because we're running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water."We are not running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water. In fact, it is due to the president's party of extreme environmentalists that BP had to drill some forty miles from the coastline in deep waters to extract oil. Imagine if this oil leak had happened in the shallow waters off of the East Coast or even, dare we say it, in the pristine ANWR region. How much easier it would have been to cap the leak and clean up the oil?Consider our nation's vast oil reserve resources that are currently unavailable for use due to government ownership of the land or outright bans on drilling in certain areas.According to a June 2008 article in Kiplinger Magazine, the United States has enough oil reserves to power the nation for upwards of three centuries. That's three hundred years, Mr. President. We are not running out of oil reserves -- it's just that those oil reserves have been declared off-limits due to decades of environmental lobbying of our politicians, especially those on the Left. This lobbying has driven the likes of BP and others out deep into the Gulf of Mexico to extract the nation's needed oil.Note the following statement from the article:... untapped reserves are estimated at about 2.3 trillion barrels, nearly three times more than the reserves held by Organization of Petroleum Exporting Counties (OPEC) and sufficient to meet 300 years of demand-at today's levels-for auto, aircraft, heating and industrial fuel, without importing a single barrel of oil.Think about that.  The nations that currently hold us hostage by their massive oil production actually have far fewer reserves than our own nation. Put another way, some of the very nations on which we are dependent for oil are also the same nations that help to sponsor worldwide terrorism. Were we to extract our own oil, it would make our nation and the world a safer place. But isn't a spotted owl more important than the safety of the world?

Republicans have turned to satire and the new media.Joseph WeberNewsOpinionSportsCultureBooksBlogsCommunitiesMultimediaNationalWorldPoliticsNational SecurityEconomyD.C. LocalInside the BeltwayInside the RingPruden on PoliticsEditorialsCommentaryLettersWater CoolerCartoonsDeckerKuhnerNugentMastioBlankleyFootballBaseballHockeyBasketballSoccerGolfTennisEntertainmentHome and LifestyleTechnologyWater CoolerTechnologyNewsmakersTwo Guys in a NewsroomCapitol Hill MinutePhoto GalleriesRadioHomeNewsPolitics Account Edit My ProfileEdit PasswordLogoutLog InE-Mail AlertsSubscribeClassifiedsE-EditionRSSJudge lifts deep-water oil-drilling moratoriumCriticizes government report as 'misleading'

A federal judge halted President Obama's deep-water oil-drilling moratorium on Tuesday, telling the government its justification for the ban was "rather overbearing" and misled the public in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.Judge Martin L.C. Feldman issued an injunction, describing the president's decision as rushed and ruling that the government had jumped to the conclusion that all deep-water drilling rigs are dangerous despite the lack of any evidence.The White House said it will immediately appeal, but in the meantime it is yet another setback as Mr. Obama seeks to show he has gained control of the environmental disaster in the region two months after the BP well first began gushing. Eleven workers were killed when the rig exploded on April 20.The moratorium has come under fire from lawmakers of both parties in the region, who said the halt could hurt the already struggling economy's chances of rebounding.

The judge has rejected the Interior Department's argument. He's denied the Obama administration's request for a stay.

The Justice Department says in court papers that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has instructed all employees to not take any action to enforce the moratorium. It also says the department is sending letters to operators who received notices of suspension that those notices have no legal effect at this time. The government is seeking a delay in the ruling overturning the moratorium while it appeals the decision. The moratorium had halted approval of any new permits for deep water projects and suspended drilling on 33 exploratory wells.

The Justice Department says in court papers that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has instructed all employees to not take any action to enforce the moratorium. It also says the department is sending letters to operators who received notices of suspension that those notices have no legal effect at this time. The government is seeking a delay in the ruling overturning the moratorium while it appeals the decision. The moratorium had halted approval of any new permits for deep water projects and suspended drilling on 33 exploratory wells.