This week, President Obama’s top scientific advisor, John Holdren, bucked the Administration’s growing opposition to natural gas, stating that the “Keep-It-In-the-Ground” movement was “unrealistic.” It is clear that Holdren, who is the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, realizes the integral role reliable energy sources such as natural gas play, unlike some of his Administration counterparts who are beholden to far left ideology.
The Administration’s goal has been to continually drive affordable and reliable energy sources out of the market, through the use of executive policies and high-ended taxes. This goal is much in line with the ideology of the Keep-it-in-the-Ground movement, that opposes traditional energy sources. However, the Administration is wrong for demonizing traditional energy. When discussing energy policy, ridding the world of abundant, cost-effective, and reliable energy sources should not be a goal.
The increasing role of natural gas in America has been to create jobs, reduce energy costs, and do so with a lessened environmental impact, which may be a point some on the left like to ignore. Holdren however, has not been scared to tout the benefits of natural gas, much to the likely dismay of the President. Clearly it would be a good idea if our President spent a little more time listening to his staff and less focusing on his “green” legacy.
The irony of the disconnect between President Obama and his top advisor on reliable energy sources is that Obama was not always a student of the Keep-it-in-the-Ground Ideology. In 2013 President Obama remarked that:
“We’ve got to tap into this natural gas revolution that’s bringing energy costs down in this country, which means manufacturers now want to locate here because they’re thinking that we’ve got durable, reliable supplies of energy.”
The economic pain on taxpayers, energy consumers, and businesses can be felt from our current Administration’s regressive, anti-growth energy policies. Overregulation and subsidization are the two biggest problems with our current U.S. energy policies.
We need a government that will allow for the free market to decide and not depend on taxpayers to have to be responsible for the federal government’s irresponsible spending and regulation. Holdren’s comment on natural gas comes as the Administration seems intent on waging further war on affordable energy in the last year of his tenure as President.
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