In his State of the Union speech, President Obama straight up touted his “all-of-the-above energy strategy” as being responsible for getting America “closer to energy independence than we’ve been in decades.” He said that “taken together, our energy policy is creating jobs and leading to a cleaner, safer planet.”
The country may be closer to energy independence, and the energy industry certainly has created a lot of jobs, but it’s certainly not due to any “all-of-the-above” strategy pushed by the Obama administration.
Besides, what is this “all-of-the-above” strategy anyway? If Obama believed in such a strategy, then he would not have worked to destroy the coal industry (and thousands of jobs) by encouraging the EPA to limit the carbon emissions allowed by coal-fired power plants. Furthermore, if he believed in an all-of-the-above strategy, he would be doing more to support next-generation nuclear and would have approved the Keystone XL pipeline long ago, in the interest of helping get more bottlenecked American crude oil to market.
What is responsible for getting America closer to energy independence is the boom in the production of oil and natural gas. This boom has happened without the administration’s help. The president rightly noted the contribution of natural gas, saying that “if extracted safely, it’s the bridge fuel that can power our economy with less of the carbon pollution that causes climate change.” That “extracted safely” bit is, of course, code word for concerns over fracking. Much to the fracktivists’ dismay, Obama — as has been his custom in previous SOTUs — did not mention fracking, neither for approval or disapproval. But in his cheerleading for natural gas, his encouragement of natgas-powered cars and trucks, he is giving fracking his tacit backing. That’s because 90% of the oil and gas wells drilled in America today are fracked — there could be no oil and gas boom without it.
He did throw the fracktivists a couple bones, stating that his administration would keep working to strengthen protections “of our air, our water, and our communities” and to “use my authority to protect more of our pristine federal lands for future generations.” That means the oil and gas industry shouldn’t expect drilling permits on federal land.
The only time I laughed out loud at the president’s address tonight when he said the following: “But the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact. And when our children’s children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to leave them a safer, more stable world, with new sources of energy, I want us to be able to say yes, we did.
The only scalable, proven, zero-carbon energy source is nuclear. While I generally think it’s better to have less government spending on anything and everything, one area where federal research is justified and needed is on the design and construction of new generations of modular nuclear reactors. Again, Obama didn’t even mention nuclear.
Neither did Obama mention wind or coal. Yet together those energy sources are responsible for 60% of the nation’s electric power generation (coal 37%, nuclear 19% and wind 3.5%). He did harp on solar, probably because his administration has been instrumental in directing billions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize solar installations that would otherwise be at best marginally economic. Solar may qualify as one of those all-of-the-above energy sources, but if it all disappeared tomorrow we wouldn’t miss it much. According to the Dept. of Energy solar accounts for less than half of one percent of U.S. power generation.
“Every four minutes, another American home or business goes solar; every panel pounded into place by a worker whose job can’t be outsourced,” Obama said. Sure, but you could certainly say that same exact thing about the roughnecks wrangling pipe on drilling rigs, the coal miners toiling at coal seams or the workers maintaining nuclear power plants. And there’s a hell of a lot more of all of them than there are solar installers.
In fact, upon listening to Obama give his speech tonight, I bet there’s a few thousand unemployed Appalachian coal miners who thought that if the president really wanted to address unemployment, income inequality and U.S. energy independence all at once, then he could sure get a lot of mileage by telling the EPA to lay off the coal industry and help them get back to their well-paid work. That would be a real all-of-the-above solution for part of the country that could really use the help.
Here’s the President’s comments on energy:Now, one of the biggest factors in bringing more jobs back is our commitment to American energy. The all-of-the-above energy strategy I announced a few years ago is working, and today, America is closer to energy independence than we’ve been in decades.One of the reasons why is natural gas – if extracted safely, it’s the bridge fuel that can power our economy with less of the carbon pollution that causes climate change. Businesses plan to invest almost $100 billion in new factories that use natural gas. I’ll cut red tape to help states get those factories built, and this Congress can help by putting people to work building fueling stations that shift more cars and trucks from foreign oil to American natural gas. My administration will keep working with the industry to sustain production and job growth while strengthening protection of our air, our water, and our communities. And while we’re at it, I’ll use my authority to protect more of our pristine federal lands for future generations.It’s not just oil and natural gas production that’s booming; we’re becoming a global leader in solar, too. Every four minutes, another American home or business goes solar; every panel pounded into place by a worker whose job can’t be outsourced. Let’s continue that progress with a smarter tax policy that stops giving $4 billion a year to fossil fuel industries that don’t need it, so that we can invest more in fuels of the future that do.
And even as we’ve increased energy production, we’ve partnered with businesses, builders, and local communities to reduce the energy we consume. When we rescued our automakers, for example, we worked with them to set higher fuel efficiency standards for our cars. In the coming months, I’ll build on that success by setting new standards for our trucks, so we can keep driving down oil imports and what we pay at the pump.Taken together, our energy policy is creating jobs and leading to a cleaner, safer planet. Over the past eight years, the United States has reduced our total carbon pollution more than any other nation on Earth. But we have to act with more urgency – because a changing climate is already harming western communities struggling with drought, and coastal cities dealing with floods. That’s why I directed my administration to work with states, utilities, and others to set new standards on the amount of carbon pollution our power plants are allowed to dump into the air. The shift to a cleaner energy economy won’t happen overnight, and it will require tough choices along the way. But the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact. And when our children’s children look us in the eye and ask if we did all we could to leave them a safer, more stable world, with new sources of energy, I want us to be able to say yes, we did.
