Cap-and-Tax

A couple of months ago I made a couple of cryptic posting regarding energy. Most people did not quite understand the point of titling them "He Gets it".

I had suspected what was going to happen, and Tuesday's speech confirmed it: The only way to make alternative energy viable is to artificially raise the cost of mainstream energy through a cap and trade system.

Though this will generate a fair amount of revenue for the government (at the expense of energy consumers) this approach will ultimately fail for the simple reason that oil is abundant, cheap to extract and package, and has a lower environmental footprint than ethanol, solar, or wind.

OPEC and other oil producing countries simply have to lower the price of oil temporarily to more than offset any tax burden and reshape the economic equation in favor of fossil fuel.

Alternative Energy will need to win on its own merit. No amount of government involvement will alter that.

Rookie?!?

It sure has been an inauspicious start to the Obama administration.

Instead of by-partisanship he gets 3 Republicans to vote for the Trillion Dollar Bill (for a better idea read this), his commerce secretary pulls out after being slapped in the face with the census issue, the market is back to its November lows, and most moderate are left wondering: Where’s the beef?

Obama might be too weak to affect any change in Washington. Or not, we still don’t know. The long election night continues, but I know one thing: I do not like what I see.

Mr. President, grow a backbone already.