Top 10 Examples Proving Obama Wants High Energy Prices

Top 10 Examples Proving Obama Wants High Energy Prices
by Human Events
06/25/2011

You may have noticed that gas prices are sky-high as Recovery Summer II begins, and wondered why the cost for a fill-up has more than doubled since President Obama took office, even as the economy remains in the tank. It shouldn’t be a surprise, as Obama has made it clear all along that higher gas prices can help usher in his green utopia of windmills, solar panels and unicorns—all for the sake of his environmental backers. Here are the Top 10 Examples Proving Obama Wants High Energy Prices:

1. Energy dollars wasted on pricey green jobs: During his acceptance speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama promised that if elected President, he would “invest $150 billion over the next decade in renewable energy—an investment that will lead to new industries and 5 million new jobs.” Nearly a quarter of the way into that dream, Obama’s own Council of Economic Advisers says that only 225,000 green energy jobs were created or “saved” after an $80 billion down payment from the stimulus package—an astounding $335,000 per job. The President has consistently called for funding his green job plans with measures that would increase the cost of using fossil-fuel energy for everyone.

2. Energy secretary favors higher gas prices: Perhaps the strongest indication that Obama wants higher gas prices is the fact that he appointed Steven Chu as energy secretary. Before his nomination, Chu told the Wall Street Journal, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,” which are considerably higher than the U.S. due to steep levels of taxation. The administration’s obsessive push for alternative fuels prompted the recent release of a report from California Rep. Darrell Issa’s House Government Oversight Committee titled “Rising Energy Cost: An Intentional Result of Government Action.”

3. Pushed cap and tax: In remarks made in January 2008, Obama said that under his cap-and-trade proposal, "energy prices would necessarily skyrocket." Despite that stark admission, he went ahead and made passage of the massive energy bill a cornerstone of his domestic agenda. While the bill passed the House, it died in a Democratic-controlled Senate as Rust Belt liberals bailed due to the economic damage it would have caused their states and higher energy costs everywhere.

4. EPA’s carbon-dioxide regulatory grab: After Republican gains in Congress during the 2010 midterm elections, hopes were dashed for a legislative revival of Obama’s cap-and-trade proposal(see No. 4). Never mind. Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency has decided to take matters into its own hands and implement similar measures administratively, mainly by regulating carbon-dioxide emissions as a pollutant.

5. Gov’t Motors seeks gas tax for slumping Volt sales: Whoa, ho! Here’s a surprise. General Motors Chief Executive Officer Dan Akerson wants a $1 per gallon gas tax on consumers in order to help boost sales of its Chevy Volt, an electric car that nobody is buying. After taking a government bailout, the automaker needs more taxpayer money for its ridiculous venture. Don’t even ask about the Volt’s limited mileage range or its miles-per-gallon in cold weather.

6. Bankrupting the coal industry: During his presidential campaign, Obama made clear his vision: Energy companies must pay. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Obama said: “So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted.” Better get those windmills up and running.

7. Oil company tax to fund clean energy: In President Obama’s 2011 State of the Union address, he called for an Apollo project for clean energy, and wanted to “eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies” and use the money to subsidize costly and sometimes unproven clean-energy technology. That’s a formula for higher gas prices because the money he claims that taxpayers “give” to the oil companies is mostly tax breaks to enable companies to find new areas for future drilling.

8. Stifles U.S. oil drilling, while subsidizing Brazil’s: The BP oil spill prompted the President to impose a drilling moratorium in the Gulf making deepwater drilling permits impossible to obtain. So when oil companies moved their rigs to areas off the coast of Brazil where they were welcomed, Obama offered billions in U.S. taxpayer money to aid the venture, creating new jobs in South America. By refusing to allow U.S. energy sources to be developed, the President is ensuring increased reliance on expensive and volatile foreign oil.

9. Blocking Canadian pipeline: Canada is trying to run a pipeline from its energy-rich tar sands in Alberta to refineries in Texas and Oklahoma. Leave it to Obama’s State Department to throw a monkey wrench into the project, stalling approval for the jobs- and energy-producing venture with the support of environmentalists opposed to the methods used to extract the tar.

10. Energy hypocrisy: Like Al Gore, who preaches about reducing greenhouse-gas emissions while consuming enormous amounts of energy for his personal use, President Obama is using up all the energy he can. His frequent global excursions and vacations with his large entourage gobble up enough energy to power a small town, or even John Edwards’ house. All the more galling as he recently lectured Georgetown University students to cut back on their gasoline consumption. The double standard only highlights his lack of a real energy policy other than to inflate tires and change lightbulbs.
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To read another Top Ten list from Human Events, click here.