Obama wants to save the world by eliminating the use of fossil fuels as a source of energy. He wants to replace these fuels with renewables such as wind, solar and bio mass (ethanol). He would have electricity produced from windmills and solar power and have autos powered by electricity, not gasoline.
In 2011 wind and solar generated less than 2 percent of the energy consumed in this country. Solindra, a company manufacturing solar panels, filed for bankruptcy after receiving over $500,000 of stimulus money from the government. Just this week a company manufacturing batteries for use in electric cars went bankrupt, after receiving part of a $2.4 billion grant.
Obama has said he wants to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but his actions or inactions have done everything but implementing that position. First he proposed increased taxes on oil and gas production by eliminating the expensing of intangible drilling cost and eliminating the depletion allowance. Both of these tax benefits are the driving force behind oil and gas development. He killed the Trans-Canadian pipeline from Canada to the Golf Coast, which would have brought Canadian oil to coast refineries, thus increasing our supply of gasoline and helping to reduce the price of gasoline.
Gasoline prices are near all-time highs. This makes you believe that his energy secretary, Steven Chu, is about to achieve his goal that our gasoline prices reach the level seen in Europe. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said that to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and the price of gasoline the president should: "send a clear message that he will not shut down the revolutionary hydofracking of natural gas wells; he will open up more domestic oil fields for development; speed up the drilling permit process; reverse a series of cabinet level decisions that start with rebuking his Energy Secretary's position on our price of gasoline; ordering his Environmental Protection Agency to go in the opposite direction from its current hostile stance on domestically abundant coal, oil and natural gas. Finally, he should reverse his decision on the Trans Canadian pipeline which would produce 20,000 construction jobs ... ."
If only Obama would follow up his promises with appropriate actions there would be greater job opportunities, gasoline would not be at historic highs, we would not be so dependent on foreign oil, and our economy would be much improved.
Frank Deem
Vienna
