Rick Perry’s campaign released a new video on his energy plan this morning, trying to to drum up inspiration for his “drill-anywhere-burn-everything, climate-be-damned” energy policy.
Complete with orchestral music fit for a Lord of the Rings movie and supportive quotes from media pundits, Perry’s campaign attempts to spin his climate-killing energy plan into a hopeful vision for the future.
In cinema, high-budget drama doesn’t mean the director can weave a good story — or bring in good reviews from critics. Perry does neither. Here’s what others are saying about Perry’s energy plan:
“The numbers that Perry…[is] offering for job creation in the energy sector are unrealistic.” — Michael Levi, Council on Foreign Relations
“I appreciate you endorsing my energy ideas.” — Republican Presidential Candidate Michele Bachmann
“A long-standing jobs and energy proposal that resembled a wish list for the oil and gas industry…he offered no specific in the speech to support its two major claims.” — Richard Oppel, Jr, New York Times
The Perry energy plan is both scary and laughable. Watch the hilarious video below for an alternative version of the Perry campaign’s attempt at inspiration:
Rather than crafting faux dramas with nothing but fancy visuals and a poor script, the Perry campaign might want to try comedy. They’re already there.
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Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
I share this sentiment…
Some historians nurture a theory that when an era nears its end, its most perfect example emerges. Hence we have Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s energy plan, announced last Friday.
Despite clear evidence of global warming, growing awareness of the dangerous and expensive politics of oil and global movement into renewable energy, Gov. Perry has offered an unalloyed platform based on fossil fuel. From oil and gas exploration to drilling offshore and on federal lands to rolling back clean-air regulations to ending renewable energy development incentives, Perry’s initiative is all about the past. http://www.dailyastorian.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-gov-perry-feeds-hard-core-illusions/article_2bcf99e4-f8dd-11e0-973f-001cc4c002e0.html
It’s unfortunate that the media doesn’t ask Rick Perry any probing questions concerning oil production in his own state.
In 1972, production peaked at 3.56 mb/d. It’s presently ~1.3 mb/d. Was the government responsible for the large decline in Texas’ oil production? Production has been rising in the last few years due to fracking and in-fill drilling, but it won’t be long before it reaches a lower level peak.
It wasn’t government that caused the decline in Texas’ oil production, it was depletion.
Roger Blanchard
Sault Ste. Marie, MI
Zap! Great point.
Joan,
Unfortunately few, if any, news people have any knowledge of Texas’ oil production profile and few show any interest in asking probing questions. When I see people like Perry being interviewed, I’m amazed at how many obvious questions aren’t asked.
Roger
Someone may find my response to the All Things Considered (NPR) interview with Daniel Yergin last night (below):
Roger
I’d like to think I can obtain independent and accurate analyses concerning important societal issues on NPR but unfortunately, increasingly that isn’t the case. What I’m getting is a corporate view of the world that doesn’t necessarily reflect the direction that things are going.
Over the last few years, you have consistently used Daniel Yergin as your oil expert even though he has a consistent record of at best poor predictions associated with oil prices and supply (See http://www.aspousa.org/index.php/2011/10/three-strikes/ for an illustration of his poor predictions).
Unfortunately you have now turned to him as your expert on natural gas (interview 10/17/11 with Daniel Yergin on natural gas). Don’t expect his predictions to be any better for natural gas than they are for oil. His objective is to promote the view of the oil and gas industry, not provide a credible independent and accurate perspective on oil or natural gas. Do you in the least bit care if your “experts” have a dismal predictive record?
If you want someone who I view as having far more expertise on natural gas than Mr. Yergin, I would suggest the petroleum geologist Art Berman. He won’t provide the corporate line but he would be far more credible.
Roger Blanchard
Sault Ste. Marie, MI
Religious issues
Perry’s links to the New Apostolic Reformation and its founder C. Peter Wagner, who helped organize Perry’s prayer rally The Response, have also received scrutiny. Perry has said he doesn’t necessarily endorse the views of Wagner, who has advocated publicly burning statues of Catholic saints and claimed that Japan is controlled by demons because its emperor had sex with the sun goddess.
Hunting camp controversy and racial issues
In October 2011, the Washington Post reported that Perry’s family leases a hunting camp once called “Niggerhead”. According to some local residents interviewed by the Post, the Perrys used the camp for years before painting over a large rock with that name on it, which stands at an entrance to the area, and during this time Perry hosted friends and supporters at the camp.[31] Perry was criticized as being “insensitive” by Republican primary rival Herman Cain.
Following the controversy, Perry’s record on racial issues was scrutinized, including his having defended a display of Confederate symbols[34] and having allegedly run “race-baiting” ads during his 1990 campaign against progressive activist Jim Hightower for Texas agriculture commissioner. The ads pictured Hightower next to Jesse Jackson while a voice-over asks “Does Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower share your values?” The ads were criticized for their racial content by leaders in Texas’ congressional black caucus.
Debates
Perry’s performances in the GOP debates received generally poor reviews from the media. His speech was so garbled in a debate held in Orlando, Florida that Mark Hemingway of the Weekly Standard asked if Perry had suffered a stroke,[16] and Brit Hume of Fox News stated that Perry, “at a time when he needed to raise his game, I mean, he did worse, it seems to me, than he had done in previous debates.” However, Paul Burka, senior executive editor at Texas Monthly, said “Eventually the debates will end, and retail politics will take center stage. I think Perry will have an advantage in that format because he is better at the meet-and-greet and connecting with people than Mitt Romney is.”[17]
After he mishandled a question about how he would respond to a “3am call” as president, Perry’s advisers insisted that he get more sleep before the remaining debates.[18][19] However Alex Castellanos said of his next performance, at Dartmouth College, that the next time he should bring a mattress.[20] Perry admitted after the event that “Debates are not my strong suit.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Perry_presidential_campaign,_2012
Texas also has one of the worst education systems in the country and a notorious environmental record while Perry continues to say that there is not sufficient scientific evidence to prove the existence of global warming and promises to scrap much of the US’s environmental legislation including regulation of pollutants. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/19/rick-perry-candidate-unpresidential?intcmp=239