The Obama-Lunsford team has a new talking point on energy, falsely accusing U.S. companies of keeping oil off the market.

In short, the Democrats have banned U.S. companies from drilling in the places with the most oil (ANWR and the outer continental shelf, among others). Now Bruce and his buddies say that U.S. companies must first drill all the land not covered by the bans before they can drill in the places with more oil. It’s kind of like telling a bottled water company they have to drill all of the Sahara desert before they can use any mountain springs. 

From today’s Investor’s Business Daily (emphasis added):

First, Democrats dishonestly blamed oil companies for overcharging. Now they falsely accuse them of keeping their high-priced oil off the market. With public support for drilling growing, Congress is panicked.

In this presidential election year, the Democrats really do seem to think they can fool most of the people all of the time. Gasoline prices have reached well over $4 in much of the country, but instead of fulfilling the duties given to them by the voters in 2006 and allowing access to more domestic sources of oil and gas, Democrats have thrown a new headline-grabbing smear at Big Oil.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi complains that energy firms are "sitting on 68 million acres of federal lands they've already leased," but with which they are not producing oil and gas.
…
When oil companies spend big money leasing land, they are buying access to a great deal of territory, much of which has no oil and gas underfoot. They have to spend still more big money pinpointing the parts of that land where those energy resources are.

All the while, they have to weave their way through a labyrinth of environmental rules that Congress has imposed on them, plus defend themselves against bogus legal attacks from green extremists. Then, even when oil is found, it can take years to prepare to drill.

So when Pelosi and other congressional Democrats claim the oilmen are "sitting" on all that land, under which lies an ocean of crude they are gleefully keeping from consumers, those senators and representatives are lying through their well-sharpened political teeth.

In fact, these companies are spending fortunes surveying, building facilities on, and even drilling on much of this land, though it may officially be classified as nonproducing. The fact of the matter is that 94% of federal onshore lands remain unleased, while 97% of offshore areas are similarly off-limits to oil exploration.

Meanwhile the Communist regimes of China and Cuba collude to exploit the oil and gas resources off our own Gulf Coast. The blame here rests squarely on Congress, which could repeal its quarter-century-old offshore drilling moratorium tomorrow if it so chose.
Since Congress' enviro-driven 1982 moratorium, lease purchases have dwindled to a fraction of their previous level (see chart). Who, after all, wants permission to drill in a dry hole?

This incompetent, irresponsible and thoroughly politicized Democratic Congress is endangering our national security and economic well-being by locking up our own energy resources. It must not be allowed to blame the companies that spend billions supplying our energy needs for its own idiotic policies.

You can read the entire editorial here.