Obama On Energy

Obama thinks the role of government is to change your behavior. That may be the role of the state in places like Russia or China, but not in America.

Obama wants to change consumer behavior on energy by fixing prices through "price signals".

Obama: "I think it is important for us to send some price signals to change behavior."

Ed Morrissey: "Is that the function of government — to fix prices as a punitive measure to change consumer behavior? It will be in an Obama administration. He and a few elites will decide which consumer behaviors are bad, and penalize it with price signals."

Obama will take it a step farther and bankrupt the coal industry.

Obama: "...it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted."

That's a sure job killer to drive an entire industry out of existence by driving up costs and making it totally unaffordable for producers and consumers even though we get half our electrical from coal.

Is this guy totally clueless?

Wait....there's more.

He's going to make electricity rates "skyrocket" when all his increased costs to the energy industry are passed on to consumers.

Obama: "Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket."

Ed Morrissey: "Price shocks on energy is the last thing this economy needs. It would be worse than the taxes Obama promises to impose on investment, and would have the same depressive effect. It’s an utter disaster."

Obama is totally clueless.