President Obama in his May 15 weekly radio address called on the Interior Department to expand oil and gas drilling in both the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. But an examination of the president’s leadership on energy policy quickly provides a bleak assessment at best. Voters nationwide continue to voice concern about rising energy costs. With an economy slow to recover and unemployment still much higher than what the president promised during his stimulus pitch, anger aimed at Washington over gasoline approaching $4 a gallon is well placed.
Yet what has the president done up until now? Well, he’s been in Brazil urging South America’s largest economy to produce more oil — via offshore drilling; simultaneously in the United States he’s pushed the Environmental Protection Agency to enact burdensome regulations that will disproportionately affect growth and investment.
