While the GOP caucus contenders canvassed Colorado for votes over the last week, mostly at rallies and campaign speeches, two candidates spent some time addressing a critical policy issue for Colorado — energy. At the Consumer Energy Alliance 2012 Colorado Energy Summit, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich laid out their plans to reduce energy costs and fully utilize the natural resources this country is blessed with.
Unsurprisingly, they had some harsh words for President Obama's war on domestic energy — at least the type of energy that doesn't directly lead to campaign donations a la Solyndra.
Gingrich, in typical fashion, espoused the harshest criticisms of Obama, calling his administration "the most anti-American energy administration that we've ever had. And the consequence is you have the highest cost of gasoline in American history."
He even mentioned something we touched on two weeks ago, specifically the fact that the growth in domestic energy production has been occurring on non-federal lands, much to the chagrin of Obama's anti-energy enviro allies.
Just as we did, Gingrich pointed to North Dakota as a prime example of the disconnect between the amazing technological breakthroughs occurring in the private sector and the lack of energy development on federal government land.
In North Dakota, thanks in part to fracking and horizontal drilling, from 2008-2010 oil production doubled on private land, but fell on federal lands.
The growth in production on private land has led to North Dakota having the lowest unemployment rate in the country, at a striking 3.3%.
Rather than seek to lower unemployment through increased production on federal lands across the country, Obama's administration has spent its time propping up bad green energy companies like Solyndra and Fisker, a car company who received a $529 million Department of Energy loan to build their cars in Finland.
In smacking the Department of Energy loan program that has been pilloried for wasting American taxpayer dollars to fund companies of political allies, Gingrich made it clear where investment decisions should be made.
"I don't want to have some bureaucrat deciding between company A and company B. I mean, if they were good venture capitalists they wouldn't be getting a GS15 salary."
Zing!
You can see highlights of Gingrich's speech, as well as Santorum's, after the jump.
Gingrich’s speech highlights:
Santorum’s speech highlights: