Obama's "Subsidize-All-of-the-Above" Energy Strategy

Brandon Greife
January 24, 2012

“This country needs an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy — a strategy that's cleaner, cheaper, and full of new jobs.” – Obama’s 2012 State of the Union

That may be what the United States needs, but it is not what Obama is offering.

First off, it should be a no-brainer that an “all-of-the-above” strategy would include tapping into a safe, plentiful supplier of oil in our neighbor to the north. Nevertheless, the Keystone XL pipeline, a privately funded infrastructure project that would bring tens of thousands of jobs to the United States, was recently rejected by President Obama. The decision came despite a three-year environmental review that found no threat and the inescapable reality that without the pipeline the oil will just be shipped in tankers to China while we continue to import oil on tankers from the Middle East. Yet another triumph for politics over policy.

Secondly, federal subsidization of certain renewable energy technologies has more often than not been a bust. Obama may tout the increased use of renewables and the thousands of jobs created, but when set against the billions of dollars in taxpayer money that has been invested in ensuring their success, those statistics become less impressive. After all, let’s not forget that at the outset of the Obama campaign Obama promised to “create 5 million green jobs.” Now, he’s reduced to touting the “thousands” that he’s managed to prop up with deficit-financed support.

Somehow Obama still hasn’t learned his lesson from Solyndra.

Obama's "Subsidize-All-of-the-Above" Energy Strategy

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