Newt rips left's 'demagoguery' on energy in conference call

Gingrich and Marathon Pundit

Calling in from a campaign bus in Louisiana, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, in a bloggers' conference call this morning, told us that President Obama is "engaged in an energy debate that he can't win."

Shortly before the call started, President Obama was in Oklahoma touting his phony approval--because it has already been approved--of the southern half of the Keystone XL pipeline, which the president took it upon himself to rename the Cushing pipeline.

"The degree to which that the president is against drilling strikes most people as just goofy," Gingrich said. Referring to his recent campaign appearances where he spoke about energy, Gingrich continued, "As for algae, for example, as a substitute, people start to break up and laugh." Newt pointed out the farcical nature of Obama's Wednesday appearance at a solar energy firm in Nevada--one that received a $54 million federal subsidy but only has five full-time employees. Yep, that's $10 million per job.

Newt is in Louisiana

As with the other Republican candidates for president, Gingrich supports building the entire Keystone XL pipeline. Not only will it bring in petroleum from Canadian oil sands, it will make North Dakota oil cheaper--while taking away Warren Buffet's rail monopoly on transporting that oil--and it will even bring down the cost of trucking oil from Oklahoma to Houston.

When my turn came for to question Gingrich, I asked him about specifics in regards to drilling on federal lands. For instance, would he support drilling in Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument? He said he is open to exploration there. That monument, which covers nearly two million acres, was declared such by President Clinton in 1996 in a move that remains controversial.

Western Kansas

But yes, Gingrich wants more drilling on federal lands. For example, the federal government owns nearly 70 percent of Alaska--an area that is one-and-a-half the size of Texas. If just half of that land was open to drilling, it would give us an area to develop that is the size of our second largest state, Gingrich continued.

Then he zeroed in on Obama: "The president is off on this thing where he says 'they' want to drill on the [National] Mall," he shot back. "That's just such baloney it's embarrassing. I'm happy to say as a campaign pledge that we will not drill on the Mall," he added. Newt condemned statements such as that one as "stupid left-wing demagoguery." Which of course it is. But Gingrich firmly declared such places as the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Park as "off limits."

Grand Canyon mules

In short, there is an enormous amount of federally-owned land that can be available before we would get around to the National Mall 'oil field' that Obama keeps bringing up.

Gasoline where I live is $4.50 a gallon. While Obama likes to mock skeptics of his energy policies as 'flat-earthers,' it is the president, in my opinion, who is burdened by the mule-ish stubbornness of one.

Earlier in the call, Gingrich derided Mitt Romney's moderate stances and used the "etch-a-sketch" comment made by one of the Massachusetts governor's staffers that Romney will reset his message once he is the Republican nominee as proof that the frontrunner's conservative credentials are dubious.

As for Gingrich's presidential hopes, he asserted, "The campaign is continuing onward."

Related posts:

Video: Newt on brain science and gasoline
Video: Newt on shipping packages and illegal immigration
Video: Newt on drilling, North Dakota, and jobs
Video: Newt Gingrich on his first day as president
Video: Newt on not bowing to a Saudi king

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