Obama’s Expensive Energy Pledge

(Regarding July 22 op-ed, “False choice pits economy against the environment,” Special Report: Energy.) Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson notes that former President George W. Bush pledged to lower fuel costs but, “Five years later, crude oil prices were up 143 percent.” The Obama administration wants a cap-and-trade scheme to fight climate change, but according to the Congressional Budget Office, “by attaching a cost to CO2 emissions, a cap-and-trade program would thus lead to price increases for energy.”

Unlike his predecessor in the White House, Obama pledges to increase fuel costs. Take a break from reality for a minute and assume that it was the Bush administration’s policies, rather than market forces, that caused our pain at the pump. Imagine what Obama’s expensive energy policies will do to the price of fuel!