Cagle Post: Obama’s Energy Plan?

New post on President Obama’s pseudo “energy plan:”

President Obama last week tried to reboot his supposed energy policy during a much hyped speech at Georgetown University. The problem is that the Obama Administration does not have an energy policy to reboot. As with other major problems facing the country, the President and his team have been focusing on issues that placate the left and do not help the average hardworking American taxpayer. The speech at Georgetown was typical Obama; a lot of fluff and buzz words with no clear plan to achieve energy independence.

The first grand “energy plan” produced by the Obama Administration was Cap and Trade. This misguided policy would have taxed carbon emissions on power companies that would have been felt by middle class Americans. In 2009, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the average household in the lowest tax bracket would see a $680 jump in energy costs if there were a 15 percent cut in emissions. Strikingly, the pain would have been felt hardest in states that rely on coal to power their homes and businesses – mainly in the mid-west and south.

Cap and Trade did pass the Nancy Pelosi-led House of Representatives in 2009, but failed to gain any traction in the United States Senate where Republicans had an effective minority. In 2010, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico led to a costly overreaction by the Obama Administration when it banned drilling and exploration in the Gulf and Eastern Atlantic. Fortunately, the drilling moratorium was lifted last October for the western Gulf, but the Obama Administration has been slow-walking the permit process in the Gulf and has banned drilling off the coasts of Florida, Virginia and the eastern Gulf for at least the next seven years. In essence, there is a de facto moratorium in place.

Read the full op-ed here