The counteroffensive to President Obama’s war on fossil fuels begins

At long last, Congress is launching a counteroffensive to President Obama’s war on fossil fuels. A bipartisan group of senators recently grilled Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar about bureaucratic delays in approving deep-water oil drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico. And, following an Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the impact of EPA regulation of greenhouse gas emissions on jobs, legislation was introduced to block that agency’s regulatory authority. Obama has been undeniably consistent in his unrelenting and unapologetic attack on our nation’s traditional forms of energy — coal, oil and natural gas. While running for president, Obama famously said he sought to make electricity prices “necessarily skyrocket” through cap-and-trade legislation and “bankrupt” power plants committing the progressive crime of using coal as an energy source. When cap and trade failed to pass Congress before the 2010 midterm elections, Obama shifted gears. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Obama said: “One of my top priorities next year is to have an energy policy that begins to address all facets of our overreliance on fossil fuels. We may end up having to do it in chunks, as opposed to some sort of comprehensive omnibus legislation.”...more