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Obama's Energy choice wants you to pay $8.00 per gallon
Posted by Andrew Moylan - December 17, 2008President-elect Barack Obama has announced his selection for Secretary of Energy: Dr. Steven Chu, an experimental physicist, Nobel Prize winner, and one of the more intriguing cabinet selections. Impressive though his bio is, one thing about Dr. Chu jumped out at me: he wants gas prices to be MUCH higher than they are now or even this summer. As in, twice as expensive thanks to government dictate.
"Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe," Mr. Chu, who directs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in September."
He has advocated for raising gas taxes dramatically over a period of 15 years to put us on par with the poor saps in Europe, some of whom paid between $8.00-$10.00 for a gallon of gasoline over the summer.
In fairness, Obama has said that he doesn't want to raise the gas tax in such a way, but one has to wonder about the selection of an individual who holds such a belief. Having gasoline at $8.00+ per gallon would be devastating to family budgets and retail prices across the country.
Add Comment -
Jim said on Dec 17 2008 at 1:04pm
I may not be a Noble Prize winning Physicist but I'm smart enough to realize that solving one problem by creating another is no way to solve problems.
Emmett said on Dec 17 2008 at 2:21pm
The Nobel means little if anything at all.
It is no surprise, his ill considered directive, if you take into account where he is tenured.
Bruce said on Dec 19 2008 at 4:00am
Well, certainly a gas tax to pay for the cost of defending our need to import all this energy, etc.
KC said on Dec 19 2008 at 7:15am
I just love listening to the people who have easy access to necessities and public transportation. Who cares if the gas tax is high if you live in a dense urban area. You have many alternatives. Dr. Chu lives in California where you typically don't have to go far or have the option of public transit. Though, millions of Americans outside of the urban areas live miles from the nearest grocery store, gas station, or school and have no access to public transit because it is non-existent. Driving is a necessity in these parts of the country. $8.00 a gallon gas would devastate these people and probably force them to give up their livelihoods and move.
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