NASHVILLE, TN - The Tennessee Republican Party has released Yes We Can, a new web video looking at Barack Obama’s just-say-no response to plans to make America less dependent on hostile sources of oil.

“Sen. Obama is fond of leading large crowds to parrot his catch phrase, ‘Yes we can,’ but when it comes to increasing America’s oil supplies and declaring independence from unstable Middle East oil producers and hostile foreign regimes, Sen. Obama lately has been saying ‘No’ quite a lot,” said Robin Smith, chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party.

Drill for more oil in the United States and off our coastlines? No we can’t, says Obama, even though all the evidence and experience shows we can do it without harming the environment.

In the latest Rasmussen poll, 66 percent of Tennesseans said they support resuming offshore oil drilling, but Obama says ‘No we can’t,’ even though Cuba recently signed agreements with oil companies from Spain, Norway, India, Canada, Malaysia and Venezuela to drill for oil off Cuba’s coasts as close as 50 miles to America.

Obama even opposes importing more oil from Canada’s oil-rich Alberta oil sands region, and opposes building more nuclear plants.

No, we can’t, says Obama.

“Like it or not, oil currently is the lifeblood of our economy. It is how Tennesseans get to work, how Tennessee farmers till their fields and harvest their crops, how Tennessee businesses get their products to market, and how Tennessee families get their children to school and soccer practice,” said Bill Hobbs, communications director for the Tennessee GOP. “Windmills and solar panels are great, but Sen. Obama is fooling himself and his supporters by claiming they are the solution to today’s high gas prices, high energy costs and dependence on oil from the Middle East and hostile regimes like the one in Venezuela.”

“When Tennesseans - Republicans and Democrats - overwhelmingly believe we should drill offshore but Sen. Obama ‘no’ because it won’t lower gas prices right away, it shows once again just how out of touch Obama is out of touch with the views of the average Tennessean,” Smith said.

Hobbs said Obama’s plan to slap huge new taxes on oil companies to fund research into alternative energy will cost Americans more at the pump immediately - even as oil companies from six other countries begin drilling for oil just 50 miles from our coast.

President Jimmy Carter tried Obama’s windfall profits tax idea back in 1980. The Congressional Research Service later concluded that the tax significantly reduced domestic oil production and raised oil imports.

Obama’s opposition to drilling for more oil in America also costs Tennessee jobs:

A 1991 economic study by Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates project that opening up 2,000 acres of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling would generate up to 735,000 new jobs in America, including more than 13,000 right here in Tennessee in construction, service, manufacturing, and engineering jobs related to oil development.

You can view the new video Yes We Can, a Tennessee GOP production, on YouTube at www.youtube.com/tennesseegop.

The direct link to the video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k4KG_MQ7Cg

Obama opposes increased oil imports - Canada National Post, June 24, 2008

Cuba has signed agreements with seven foreign oil companies from Spain, Norway, India, Canada, Venezuela and Malaysia for the exploration of offshore oil and gas. Cuba: Issues for the 110th Congress, Congressional Research Service, August 21, 2007

“Sixty-six percent (66%) of voters in Tennessee think drilling in offshore oil wells should be allowed in order to help reduce fuel prices.” - Rasmussen Poll, June 26, 2008