This is a rush transcript from "Hannity," March 22, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: When talking about how to fix skyrocketing prices of gas, the administration is running on fumes. When President Obama took office in 2009, the national average for the price of gas was $1.84 cents but today it is doubled to $3.89 cents. And the RNC wants to make sure that Americans know how all of this could have been prevented. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRAPHIC: Obama's Energy Secretary says he deserves higher than an A-.
SEN. MIKE LEE, R-UTAH: You're recorded as saying, quote, "Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe." Price of gasoline in Europe now, were about $8 a gallon.
GRAPHIC: No wonder rising gas prices earn a top grade...
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I would say, I will give myself a little higher.
GRAPHIC: Obama rejected the Keystone pipeline. 20,000 American jobs.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: The Obama administration rejected the Keystone pipeline.
GRAPHIC: Obama blocked American energy exploration around the county.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Obama closed all those areas.
GRAPHIC: Obama told Brazil to drill while opposing new American energy.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: And when you are ready to start selling, we want to be one of your best customers.
GRAPHIC: Under Obama, oil production has dropped on federal lands.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: There is a lot of talk about opening up new areas. It is merely talk.
GRAPHIC: Obama went bankrupt with 'green energy' taxpayer money.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Taxpayer money was given to the now bankrupt company.
GRAPHIC: Imposed new burdens on American energy producers.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: These prices are off the chart, 4.99 for a gallon.
GRAPHIC: Pushed a cap-and-trade law which would increase energy prices.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Do you plan on doing about increasing gas prices?
GRAPHIC: And suggests algae can save us all.
OBAMA: Want me to increase them. You got a bunch of algae out here, right?
GRAPHIC: Obama on empty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: And my next guest is here to put things in perspective. Now he has a brand new gas price calculator online. It's a www.toomuchatthepump.com. Now, here's how it works. Now, if you drive for example a Ford Taurus, if you driving that when Obama took office, you were paying just $35 to fill up your tank. But now, well, it's costing you well over $70. Pretty shocking.
Joining me now, the man running for his old Senate seat in the commonwealth of Virginia, former Georgia, I'm sorry, former Virginia governor and Senator George Allen. How are you? Good to see you, Senator.
GEORGE ALLEN, R-U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: Good to be with you.
HANNITY: I'm saying senator again because it is going to happen. You know, we're looking to that. That's double the price. You notice this is the one issue that the president doesn't blame George Bush for.
ALLEN: Well, President Bush was one who was in favor of allowing us for example in Virginia to explore for oil and natural gas off our coast. If I'm hired on by the people of Virginia to represent them and their voices in Washington on day one, I'm introducing a bill to allow Virginia to produce oil and gas off our coast and use the royalties for roads and transportation.
They are out of touch. The whole purpose of this toomuchatthepump .com is to realize that people are paying 25, 30, $35 more every time they fill up. And you think, why would people do that extra $30? They might go to a restaurant, save it for their children's college education. Buy gifts. Save it. Pay down debt.
HANNITY: We could be paying $2 of gallon, we have enough gas, Jim Imhoff (ph) said, minimum what, 70 years minimum without even touching oil shale and on top of that, we've got natural gas that, you know, we could, you know, have for 100 plus years.
ALLEN: And coal.
HANNITY: And coal.
ALLEN: The point is we are number one in the world when it comes to energy resources. If we unleash our resources, we would have more affordable fuel. More affordable food. More affordable electricity. We wouldn't be so vulnerable to outside hostile forces. We could have a rebirth in our industry in our country, making our country much more competitive for investment and jobs. The federal government would get over a trillion dollars in revenues without raising taxes and we'd be keeping our money here in the United States of America.
HANNITY: Well said and it's good for also our national security.
ALLEN: Absolutely.
HANNITY: Here is the president from earlier today though, now he claims we are drilling. If anyone tells you drill, baby, drill. You know, we have been doing that. Well, we have a new study that proves otherwise. But this was him from earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We have been drilling. We are drilling right now. Under my administration, America is producing more oil today than at any time in the last eight years.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
At any time. That is a fact.
We have added enough oil and gas pipeline to circle the entire earth and then some.
The problem is not that we are not drilling or that we are not producing more oil. We are producing more oil than any time in the last eight years. That is not the problem. There are probably a few spots where we are not drilling, it is true. I'm not drilling in the South Lawn. We are not drilling next to the Washington Monument.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANNITY: I don't find any of this funny. Now, there was a study, Congressional research service, which by the way is nonpartisan. They came out. He is bragging about we increased drilling. No, 96 percent of the total increase of domestic production has occurred on nonfederal land. The number of leases and permits have been cut in half and more. So, he is being dishonest there.
ALLEN: Well, the fact, I mentioned Virginia. He has said no to the people of Virginia who would like to explore off our coast. He said no to the oil from Canada.
HANNITY: Keystone.
ALLEN: Yes. The Keystone pipeline. And the other thing is, is with their cap-and-trade energy tax that they're trying to impose through EPA, that is going to shut down coal which is a major supplier of jobs and obviously affordable electricity in our country.
So, the reality is, not only is he against it in Alaska and Virginia, the permits in the Gulf are a fraction of where they were before and then if we are not going to get it from America, Canada is a good reliable neighbor and ally.
And so, the reality is everything they are doing is driving up the costs and they say, well, supply doesn't matter. The Saudis just this week said they were going to increase production. The price of oil dropped.
HANNITY: Yes, but I think just by the prospects of them drilling. If we announced it, it would --
ALLEN: Yes, it would.
HANNITY: Liberals get mad because I call the president "President Crybaby." I mean, blames George W. Bush for everything except the price of gas that he inherited. You know, $1.80 a gallon. He blames talk radio, Rush Limbaugh or Karl Rove, Sean Hannity, Fox News, Ed Gillespie, the Supreme Court, the Arab Spring, tsunamis, kiosks, ATMs, earthquakes, Europe, Wall Street, rich, millionaires, billionaires, and I can go on. He blames everybody.
Now, we found somebody else new to blame today. The reason for Solyndra per se was not his fault even though it was his bundlers that got access to his White House that four times the week before they got your money that they poured down the drain, now he is blaming China and Congress for his decision. Watch this.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP/MARKETPLACE, MARCH 21)
OBAMA: We are doing the all the above strategy right. Obviously, we wish Solyndra hadn't gone bankrupt. Part of the reason they did was because the Chinese were subsidizing their solar industry and flooding the market in ways that Solyndra couldn't compete.
But understand, this was not our program about per se. Congress, Democrats and Republicans, put together a loan guarantee program because they understood historically that when you get new industries -- it is easy to raise money for startups but if you want to take them to scale often times, there is a lot of risk involved and what the loan guarantee program was designed to do was to help startup companies get to scale.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
HANNITY: He is not drilling, claims he is. And then he is responsible for the decision, the Bush administration rejected it. It's not our problem program per se because of the Chinese and Congress. Is that how desperate they are?
ALLEN: Yes. And they hope no one is paying attention to the accurate facts. Solyndra is probably the word that best explains this administration's counterproductive punishing energy policies.
But Sean, the good news is, it doesn't have to be this way. And our campaign is about envisioning a better future for our country and part of that is unleashing our American energy resources and we just need to change the players and the deciders in Washington, D.C. to make sure that we have decision makers who have a political will to say look, we have these energy resources under our land and under our water. We have the resources and the creativity of the American people. Let's make sure that America, we can have an industrial renaissance in this country, improve people's quality of life. Not have this -- the people are hurt the worst by this are lower and middle income working people, and this is a very regressive harmful policy for families, particularly those that live in the suburbs and rural areas that drive longer distances.
HANNITY: Listen, if we would inflate our tires, get tune-ups and use algae, we would all be better off.
ALLEN: Algae is another great idea. Yes, I say that of course sarcastically.
HANNITY: Of course. Good to see you. Thank you for being with us.
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