Fairbanks News Miner Editorial.  the head of the American Petroleum Institute says oil production on federal lands, where the president has authority, has actually fallen. Jack Gerard, the group’s president, says production in the Gulf Mexico is down 30 percent, though that may be because of fallout from the BP spill, and lease sales in the Rocky Mountains are down 70 percent. He says, pointing to federal Energy Information Administration material for support, the president is only making 3 percent of the lands and waters under his control available for development.  President Obama concluded his remarks in the North Carolina by saying people are tired of hearing “phony election-year promises that never come about.”  We’ll second that.  

And we’ll ask that the president begin to vigorously advocate for greater oil production from federal lands and waters, including those in Alaska. If he won’t, perhaps another president will.