Obama, Your "Hot Air" Doesn't Fuel My Car!

We have some interesting stuff going on here when it comes to the nation's energy security. Just a few months ago Obama was blaming the Republicans for botching the Keysone XL oil pipeline deal.

“As the State Department made clear last month, the rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline’s impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment,” Obama said in a prepared statement Wednesday.

“As a result, the secretary of State has recommended that the application be denied. And after reviewing the State Department’s report, I agree,” Obama added.

This time there is more pressure for the president to allow for the pipeline. The Republicans finally wised up and introduced a bill that would allow for the pipeline without presidential approval. Now the pressure is coming from Democrats not Republicans. So what's Obama's reasoning? To get to that you would have to look at Obama's Energy Secretary appointee who said this in 2008.

"Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe," Steven Chu, the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, told the Wall Street Journal in September.

Chu said he favors gradually ramping up gasoline taxes over 15 years to nudge consumers into buying cars that are more fuel efficient and homes which are closer to work. Chu spoke with The Wall Street Journal in September but the newspaper did not publish the gas tax comments until last seek, shortly after the Nobel-prize winning physicist had been identified as Obama’s nominee for Energy secretary.

Steven Chu wants to determine where people should live based on their job location. Chu also wants to increase the price of gas to herd people towards his energy goals. Just look at the DOE's website. Here is the mission statement.

The mission of the Energy Department is to ensure America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions.

So the mission statement for the Energy Department does not include energy security through existing means? Only "transformative science and technology solutions"? The department of energy mission statement tells you all you need to know. Gaining more energy through conventional means is NOT a goal for the Obama administration period.

The Energy Department is working to decrease U.S. dependence on oil, Secretary Steven Chu said Tuesday after a Republican lawmaker scolded him for his now-infamous 2008 comment that gas prices in the U.S. should be as high as in Europe.

DOE is working to promote alternatives such as biofuels and electric vehicles, Chu told House appropriators during a hearing on DOE’s budget.

“We agree there is great suffering when the price of gasoline increases in the United States, and so we are very concerned about this,” said Chu, speaking to the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee. “As I have repeatedly said, in the Department of Energy, what we’re trying to do is diversify our energy supply for transportation so that we have cost-effective means.”

We have cost effective means now; the government is standing in the way of them, because they don't fit the agenda. This entire gas price debate is absurd. A majority of Democrats have been sternly behind every effort to block any increase in conventional energy production. Now the president himself has stood in the way.

Thursday’s squeaker of a Senate vote on the Keystone XL pipeline serves both as a warning to President Barack Obama that a majority of both houses of Congress supports the pipeline and as encouragement to Republicans to keep pushing the issue.

Obama had personally lobbied Senate Democrats with phone calls urging them to oppose an amendment to the highway bill that would fast-track the Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline. And as it turned out, he needed every bit of their help.

The 11 Democrats who crossed party lines to support the amendment were Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Jon Tester of Montana and Jim Webb of Virginia.

Landrieu said she was not among those getting a call from Obama. And she was not surprised to see 10 Democrats join with her to cross party lines.

So there it is plain and simple. Obama wants to be on both sides of an issue --again. First Obama says it's the Republicans fault the pipeline didn't get approved, then two months later Obama is making personal phone calls, trying to stop passage of the same bill.

There was finally some bipartisan support on energy production and Obama put a stop to it. I don't think he can win on this one.

Note: You DO NOT need to register to leave a comment.

Follow The WindUpRubberFinger on Twitter!