Taken individually, the items on this list are outrageous enough; but collectively, these ten examples show how the current administration puts America’s energy needs behind the left’s obsession with global warming alarmism.
1. Crucify oil companies
Al Armendariz, administrator of the EPA’s Texas regional office, unwittingly let the Obama administration’s true intentions be known with comments he made about enforcing environmental regulations on energy companies. “It was kind of like how the Romans used to, you know, conquer villages in the Mediterranean,” he said. “They’d go in to a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw, and they’d crucify them.” That pretty much sums up the policies of an administration that has done everything it can to combat the oil industry.
2. Keystone flub
Obama’s decision to halt the Keystone Pipeline XL cost the nation jobs, as well as access to energy resources not controlled by Middle East madmen, all to appease his environmental backers and Hollywood activists. His subsequent attempt to take credit for the southern leg of the project—the so-called Pipeline to Nowhere—shows the ridiculousness of his policy.
3. Alternative-fuel fantasies
Obama’s over-emphasis on alternative energy production has cost the nation billions of dollars as his administration showered stimulus money on companies like solar-panel producer Solyndra, which ultimately went bankrupt. While the number of failed green-energy projects keeps mounting, the amount of energy saved by such endeavors is minuscule.
4. Undeveloped resources
Vast swatches of energy-rich, federally controlled land in the United States—from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to areas off the East and West coasts—remain off-limits for energy development. Obama’s mantra that more oil is being pumped in America than ever before must be tempered by hard facts—increases in production are on private land and are in spite of, not because of, any efforts by the Obama administration.
5. Bungling in the Gulf
The gulf oil spill prompted the Obama adminstration to declare a mortatorium on deepwater drilling, and when oil rigs relocated to Brazil, the president helped to fund that nation’s oil production. Meanwhile, communities near the gulf are still suffering from a loss of jobs resulting from Obama’s actions.
6. War on coal
The Obama Environmental Protection Agency is waging a war on coal, slowing the permitting process to a crawl and issuing crippling regulations. Candidate Obama signaled as much in 2008, when he said: “When I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”
7. Taxing energy companies
Obama’s class-warfare rhetoric routinely focuses on eliminating tax breaks on oil and gas companies, yet most energy tax write-offs go to renewable green-energy ventures that get little bang for the taxpayer’s buck. The elimination of certain tax benefits would undoubtedly lead to less exploration for new energy sources and higher prices for consumers.
8. Chevy Volt fiasco
Obama’s attempt to leverage the auto bailout by bullying carmakers into making energy-efficient vehicles was a miserable failure. The Chevy Volt cost too much, didn’t work very well, and had safety issues. No wonder the American consumer roundly rejected the effort and the automaker had to suspend production of the Volt.
9. Fracking regulations
Techonological advances in fracking are allowing oil and gas companies to extract energy resources at reduced costs, helping rejuventate the economies of states from North Dakota to Texas. So leave it to the EPA to try to stifle the process with new regulations to curb emissions from fracking. The new standards will cost the industry hundreds of millions of dollar, slowing the fracking boom.
10. High gas prices
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar recently called Republican energy plans “fairy tales” and “falsehoods.” Salazar, asked at a different event if the cost of gas was headed to $9 per gallon, responded by saying, “Where it all will end, no one knows.” What we do know is that Barack Obama and the environmental lobby have long wanted higher gas prices to “save” the planet from global warming. Which party believes in fairy tales, Mr. Salazar?
