In case you haven't noticed, President Obama has declared war on fossil fuels. Delaying a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline until after the elections was a crass political move to deny Republicans a campaign issue, while reassuring environmentalists that the pipeline would never be built. Republicans were wise to force a decision in two months as part of the payroll tax holiday legislation. But that hasn't stopped the president's minions from carrying on the crusade.
Stephen Chu, who heads the Department of Energy, is now famous for his role in the Solyndra affair. Promoting green jobs, no matter how costly to our economy, is at the top of his agenda.
Ken Salazar, head of the Interior Department, has not only dragged his feet in approving drilling permits for oil in the Gulf, he has done even worse when it comes to issuing permits for coal mining. Tens of thousands of potential jobs have been lost in West Virginia because half of the permits take over two years for approval, causing a third of the applications to be withdrawn. And that's just one example.
The greatest job killer in the Administration, by far, is Lisa Jackson, head of the EPA. While we were being pounded in December by news of the political wars in Congress, Ms. Jackson was issuing a new 1,117-page regulation on coal-fired power plants that is sure to cause job losses and economic destruction, because the technology to comply with the mandate to install far-reaching emission controls will be extraordinarily expensive if not impossible. As a result, many plants will close, and, as President Obama once promised, energy costs will necessarily skyrocket.
If the war on fossil fuels is crippling domestic energy production and costing hundreds of thousands of jobs now, just imagine what will happen when President Obama's reelection removes any political restraints on his green agenda.
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