Feeds: 
symbol identifies content for paid subscribers only.
Is It News When the President Makes Untrue Statements (i.e. lies)?
We will know the answer to that one soon. President Bush said in his radio address today said that the oil in the offshore protected areas is equal to 10 years of current production.
No, that is not true. The Energy Information Agency, the government agency responsible for making estimates of oil reserves, calculates that there are approximately 8 billion of barrels of oil in the protected areas. Current production is approximately 3 billion barrels a year. That implies that the oil in the offshore protected areas is equal to less than 3 years of annual production, not ten years. That means that President Bush is off by a factor of more than three.
It actually is somewhat worse. U.S. production is only equal to 40 percent of consumption. Consumption is the more relevant factor in determining the importance of this oil. The oil in offshore protected areas is equal to only a bit more than a year of domestic consumption.
In other words, President Bush was completely misrepresenting the importance of oil in offshore protected areas. Why isn't this major news? Do the NYT, Washington Post, NPR, and Lehrer News Hour believe that President Bush lies so often that it can't be treated as news?
--Dean Baker
COMMENTS (11)
Even if dopey is right, 10 years at 'the current rate of consumption' has little to do with the 'future rate of consumption'.
Despite the 'Prevasive Pollyannas of Prosperity' claims, we are going to run out of oil...no matter how much drilling we do.
We need alternative energy NOW!
Posted by: Gegner | September 7, 2008 3:29 AM
He is lies? He must responsible on what he says.
Posted by: nick | September 7, 2008 4:19 AM
George W. Bush has lied so often, so repeatedly, that it is almost reflexive. When has the mainstream media ever called him on his lies? Does anyone remember his classic fib--repeated by him many times--that we "had no choice but to go into Iraq" after Hussein was given the chance to allow the weapons inspectors back in...but he refused!
Of course, the inspectors worked on the ground in Iraq for months before our invasion, and were advised to get out for their own safety before they had finished their inspections as the invasion and bombing were about to begin.
This failure of the press to call Bush on his lies is standard operating procedure, and at this late date the shocking thing would be to see any real journalistic integrity or probing watch-doggery by the news poodles.
Posted by: Robert1014 | September 7, 2008 8:00 AM
Is It News When the President Makes Untrue Statements (i.e. lies)?
No. This is an Atrios question.
Posted by: John Emerson | September 7, 2008 8:50 AM
these claims are only slightly less shocking than his claims in http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/06/20080618-4.html where he says it is enough for 'roughly 2 decades' of oil. at least he is going in the correct direction on the estimate.
Posted by: darkoakley | September 7, 2008 10:07 AM
i'm sorry for the misquote. that is not 2 decades for all the oil in proteced areas, he is saying 2 decades worth of oil in ANWR only. please see item 3 last sentence in the June 18, 2008 press release.
Posted by: darkoakley | September 7, 2008 10:11 AM
Who wants to bet that, on looking at the actual figures, he and his team realized the time it would take for this drilling to become viable was greater than the amount of oil there to be drilled and decided to just switch the numbers in public statements?
It would explain why they keep claiming the to-market time to be 1-4 years and the amount to be 10-20 years worth.
Posted by: Julian | September 7, 2008 6:29 PM
Where do you get 3 billion barrels/year? This EIA number
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_crd_crpdn_adc_mbbl_a.htm
gives it as about 1.85 billion/year. That jives with the number I've become use to using: about 5 million/day.
He's still lying though. Just not by a factory of 3.
Posted by: SqueakyRat | September 7, 2008 8:54 PM
"use" = "used"
"factory" = "factor"
Sorry!
Posted by: SqueakyRat | September 7, 2008 8:56 PM
Q: Is It News When the President Makes Untrue Statements (i.e. lies)?
A: No it isn't. George Bush lies all the time. I worry that he might make a true statement, such as "water flows downhill", and we will reflexively set out to rebuild the Hoover Dam assuming that it somehow had been built backwards.
Posted by: Kaleberg | September 9, 2008 9:21 PM
Ever since Bush said on several occasions we had to to invade Iraq because Saddam wouldn't let the inspectors in, I'm no longer surprised when he says something manifestly false and the mainstream press doesn't bat an eyebrow.
Posted by: Rick Taylor | September 20, 2008 6:08 PM