When it comes to evaluating President Barack Obama and the continuing surge in the cost of gasoline, a fair starting point is what administration officials have said on the topic. It is a matter of record that Energy Secretary Stephen Chu used to say that “we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe” – which are about double the U.S. level. While Chu disowned his comments before taking office, his policy prescriptions didn’t change.
It is also a matter of record that the Obama administration has put vastly more emphasis on “green” energy, via subsidies, incentives and mandates, than fossil fuels. While doing so, the president plays a double game: In meetings with environmental groups and their political allies, he pats himself on the back for positioning America for a post-fossil fuels era in which the nation enjoys a cleaner environment and is less dependent on foreign oil from unstable, unfriendly nations. But when it is politically necessary – as it has become in recent weeks – the administration insists it is gung ho on fossil fuels. “Our domestic oil production is at an eight-year high,” Obama campaign aide Robert Gibbs said last week.
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