August 9th, 2013
This afternoon President Obama will have his first press conference since April. Since Congress is on an extended recess, these sound bites will likely serve as the final word for the near future on increasingly hostile political debates between the two branches. Beyond the fight with Congress, the President will also face questions based on his recent remarks, such as referring to the scandals plaguing his White House as “phony.”
Looking past all of the politics and games, there are serious questions that need to be answered. Included in this mix should be questions on his energy policy.
Since the President made his platform speech on energy policy and growing ‘climate change’ in June, he has yet to defend these statements openly in front of the press corps. The press should push him to answer key questions in this debate in order to clarify some of the numbers he has claimed as factual. Such key questions that need answered include:
· Why do you claim that only 50-100 permanent jobs will be created as a result of the Keystone XL, whereas most other studies and reports indicate it will create over 50,000 jobs?
· Why do you rely on climate data that is inconsistent, at best, to push policies that could have enormous implications for average Americans?
· If renewable sources provide only 8% of current energy production, and your intent is to drastically reduce carbon emissions within the coming years, which would nearly halt every other means of energy production, what kinds of effect will this have on the American economy?
These questions may not be asked in this afternoon’s press conference, but they are important questions that should be posed to this Administration.
The economic implications of his proposed initiatives could have disastrous effects on the American economy, and the press should take this rare opportunity of directly questioning the President to produce much-needed answers.