The President is planning a stop in Cushing on Thursday as part of a multi-state tour to discuss his energy policies.
Everywhere you go in Cushing, you can't miss the references to oil. Oil is what makes this city's economy hum, and oil is why President Obama plans to visit the Payne County community next week. People in Cushing were excited to learn about the President’s visit. “(I) read about it today on the internet, and I am excited. I can't tell you how excited I am,” Anita Morris said. “I've lived here my whole life, and I would say it's one of the biggest things. I mean it's not everyday you get to see the President of the United States,” Melissa Anon told FOX23. “It's a small town, we don't usually get Presidents here,” Shannon Seymour said. President Obama will be stopping in the town of about 10,000 Thursday for one obvious reason. “Because it's the “Pipeline Crossroads of the World,” everything comes through here,” Seymour said. When she says everything, she means everything spelled o-i-l. “We just want to hear him focus on energy,” local business owner Geoffrey Beasley said. “The (oil) tanks are all around us, and that's probably why he's coming to see us,” Anon said. Even GOP supporters say they are willing to listen to whatever the President presents at his stop. “I am a Republican, but I do appreciate that fact that he's paying attention to what we are doing,” Beasley told FOX23. Beasley said the visit is an honor, and people here are willing to spend a few days sprucing up town. “We had e-mails go out a couple hours ago, people get ready, President Obama is coming.” The anticipation is already at a fever pitch. “I am getting chills just thinking about it him coming here,” Morris said. The White House said Friday that the President will speak at a storage yard where pieces of an unfinished pipeline are resting. They have not revealed the exact location. Senator Jim Inhofe released this statement about Obama's trip:
While President Obama visits Oklahoma in preparation for a new pipeline from Cushing to the Gulf, we hope that during his stay he will learn a thing or two about the benefits of using our own domestic oil and gas resources, especially as gas prices continue to skyrocket. Unfortunately, we know his visit is little more than a campaign stop in an attempt to put a favorable spin on his dismal energy record, because current gas prices threaten his job. America has more domestic recoverable resources of oil, gas and coal than any other country in the world, and developing these resources is the best way to revive our economy while bringing down prices at the pump. Yet, President Obama continues to wage an all-out attack on American fossil fuel development in his war on affordable energy. He keeps saying that oil and natural gas are the fuels of the past, but he is wrong. Oklahomans know they are very much the fuels of the present and the foreseeable future. The sooner he realizes this, the better.
