Marathon Pundit: T-Paw: Obama beholden to unreasonable environmentalists

Morton Grove, IL,
April 25, 2011

I overslept today, so I wasn't able to catch any of Don Wade & Roma's show this morning on WLS-AM. But Chicago's airwaves were blessed by common sense, courtesy of former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.

Here's a partial transcript:

DON: You know, the President over the weekend made a statement about the high gas prices and we're very sensitive to that here in Chicago. We have the highest gas prices in the nation in Chicago, and the president said that there are no easy fixes. Nobody ever said there were, but the President said he's immediately launching this effort by the justice department to look into fraud and price gouging. Do you think that there is some other more effective way that we could reduce the price of gasoline at the pump?

GOVERNOR PAWLENTY: Yeah, it's called creating more gasoline; creating more energy broadly, Don. And this is a President who has sat on his hands as it relates to drilling. You know, we've got a country that's got some enormous energy assets that are not being exploited or leveraged to the benefit of our country and to our people. Let me give you an example. They have found enough natural gas now within the territorial reach of the United States to supply the entire base load energy needs of our country for, by according to most experts, 75 - 300 years. It burns cleaner, it's available, it’s Americanized so we don't have to put up with other countries and places and people that don't like us. We should exploit that – not just for base load energy, but as a transportation fuel as well, particularly for vehicles. And as it relates to oil, I support drilling in ANWR, I support drilling off shore in ways and places that are appropriate. And this is a country that needs to get much more serious about Americanizing our energy sources and doing everything we can to develop our own energy here and add more supply, and that would help.

ROMA: Do you think that this President will ever lift the moratoriums, etc. and get on board with creating energy in this country?

PAWLENTY: Well, he's probably I don't think likely to do that, Roma. If you look at the Democratic Party and what he believes, they're mostly beholden to what I would consider militant or unreasonable environmentalists. And of course we have to be protective of the environment, but at the same time we've got to meet this country's energy needs and I just don't believe that President Obama believes what I just said about the importance of Americanizing and being aggressive about it. And I think that his record supports that conclusion.