Obama Moralizing More on Green Energy
Chris Stirewalt
FoxNews.com
3/16/2012
“One of my predecessors, Rutherford B. Hayes, reportedly said about the telephone, ‘It’s a great invention, but who would ever want to use one’ That’s why he’s not on Mt. Rushmore — because he’s looking backwards. He’s not looking forwards. He’s explaining why we can’t do something, instead of why we can do something.”
— President Obama speaking at a green-energy rally at Prince George’s County (Md.) Community College.
Global warming and green energy have been a big part of President Obama’s political pitch since he stepped onto the national stage eight years ago.
While Republicans love to mock his line about his nomination for the presidency being the moment when “the oceans stopped their rise,” environmental issues are a huge deal for Democrats.
Remember, Pew studies consistently find that liberals have the lowest levels of religious participation and belief and atheists and agnostics are much more influential in Democratic politics than they are in Republican circles. Non-believers are inclined to feel more responsible for the condition of the planet than those who believe that our existence is not an accident of biochemistry.
Plus, environmentalism provides a way for liberals to be moralizers and to demonize their foes…
…Oil companies are to the left what Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, is to the right…
…As oil prices soar, Obama is keen to avoid a repeat of 2010 and the cap-and-trade fiasco. So he is trying a two-fold effort in which he and his administration relentlessly talk up their acceptance of cheap energy sources under the new restrictions now placed upon them, but he is also ramping up his rhetoric as a preacher of environmental morality.
Obama’s argument is that he will continue to allow the use of fossil fuels but wants to more heavily tax the profits of those who produce them in order to finance government subsidies for environmentally friendly sources of energy.
But that’s a long road to travel. About 9 percent of the energy used by Americans comes from “renewables.” The rest comes from burning stuff or splitting atoms. But of that 9 percent, the vast majority comes from hydroelectric power and ethanol. Hydroelectric power has little room for growth since there aren’t any new dams going in, and ethanol doesn’t qualify as a green energy source since it requires so much energy to make itself…
The article continues, with video, at FoxNews.com
H/T and headline The Washington Times.
Related: An amusing poke at Obama’s ignorance about President Rutherford B. Hayes, Obama speechwriters don’t know much about history
…By the time I woke up this morning, conservative bloggers were all over the story. Steven Hayward offered an image of the former president and linked the page where I found the above images.
Glenn linked a Washington Post fact-checker scolding the president, “It’s bad enough for one president to knock another one for not being on Mt. Rushmore, but it’s particularly egregious to do so based on incorrect information.”
Mr. President, in the age of all this new technology, when it’s easy for your critics to check your facts and publicize your errors, don’t you think your speechwriters could do a little fact-checking?
Read the whole thing.
Update: Mark Steyn: Obama Mangles History To Defend His Poor Record
…Delivering his big speech on energy at Prince George’s Community College, he insisted the American economy will be going gangbusters again just as soon as we start running it on algae and windmills…
Update 2: Why does Obama tend to assume the worst about his critics*?
