Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Obama's choice: Higher gas prices, weaker economy

By Peter Morici, Baltimore Sun

  • Secretary Chu and President Obama share some rather radical notions — among them, that the nation has overinvested in oil and underinvested in solar, wind and other alternative energy sources.
  • Contrary to what is often reported, U.S. oil prices do not move in lockstep with international prices because refineries are built to handle the special characteristics of the oil produced by their primary sources of supply. 
  • Whatever Americans pay for gasoline, increasing domestic production to 10 million barrels a day would cut combined crude oil and gasoline imports in half — saving at least $150 billion a year.
  • Yet, given billions to invest directly, the best Secretary Chu could do was plow money into Solyndra and about a dozen other projects that independent Wall Street investment analysts advised would be "C" rated if offered in the bond market. ("C" is the rating assigned to companies with a 70 percent chance of default.)
Comment:

Obama is trying to destroy the one part of the economy that is performing well and wants to subsidize the one area ( solar and wind) that won't work.

Great job!  He will say that with a straight face.

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