Free Market Carnivore's Blog

Is President Obama readying his team for another push on cap-and-trade by another name?  Since his vaunted green jobs push so far has been an abysmal failure, will he stay true to form and double down?

Rumors and leaks about tonight’s State of the Union speech added to Eric Bolling’s musings over the President’s recent appointments would have you think so.  The leaks indicate Obama will harp on “investment in the future” and other so-called targeted spending.  Since his energy policy of moratoriums and prohibitions on drilling and spending on more expensive alternative energy sources have done nothing but increase energy costs, more of the same would logically follow.  His EPA and Interior agency regulations and proposed rules would do nothing but make energy scarcer, harder to get, harder to utilize and more crippling in cost to the economy.

But Bolling notes Obama’s appointments of William Daley as chief of staff and Jeffrey Immelt as jobs council chairman are stirring disquiet in Washington.  Daley, when he was at J.P. Morgan, pushed hard for cap-and-trade, Bolling noted.  Immelt has led GE deeply into so-called green energy fields, even now running “eco-imagination” commercials on television.  On top of that, both J.P. Morgan and GE received billions in various subsidies and loans from the Obama administration.

Put together with Obama, the three could be seen as a new green team for the rest of Obama’s term.  Bolling also notes that — entirely coincidentally, of course — those two companies are major campaign contributors to the Democratic cause.  (Bolling is a commentator on Fox News and has a show on Fox Business Network, “Follow the Money.”)

We’re not sure how the other bit of news on the energy front fits in to this picture.  Politico has reported that Carol Browner, Obama’s energy czar and a rabid environmental extremist, is leaving the administration.  No one seems to be talking about where she is going.  But it would seem to be good news to have a former EPA stalwart out of the administration.

We can’t shake the feeling that this admininistration’s energy policy is just a big activist board game to them, instead of one of the most critical keys to the U.S. economy and sadly in need of triage if Obama really wants a health economy and a nation with confidence in the future.