Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Obama Revealed.

President Obama spoke to the Congers last night, and made it very clear that the spending has only just begun. In this first year of his tenure he intends to tackle (universal) health care, expanded federal support for education, and a plunge into "green" energy production. This last objective is of particular concern: the WSJ noted this morning that White House green gurus indicate that the Administration will regulate CO2 as an atmospheric pollutant under the Clean Air Act . In which we reply, in the words of Cromwell: "I beseech you in the bowels of Christ think it possible you may be mistaken". As we have learned with the declarations of vague schemes by the Treasury for the next stanza of financial reconstruction, now is not the time to further paralyze private capital investments in our economy because of fear of brave new regulations. And the President's call to action on energy conspicuously dodged a mention of nuclear power. If we are going to supplant coal-fired electricity generation, we need to find sources that can efficiently produce several hundred thousand megawatts of energy. A wind plan as ambitious as that envisioned by Boone Pickens would produce 200,000 MW. While that's a very respectable number, it's less than a quarter of our current electricity demand. Our fear is that the White House greenies will prevail in ideological purity and America's aversion to nuclear power will continue.

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