US President Barack Obama feinted toward the political center as 2010 ended, but no one in the oil and gas industry should be fooled. This president remains dangerously resistant to the development and use of hydrocarbon energy. His administration won't be discouraged by the harsh message voters delivered to it in congressional elections last November. In December, Obama acted as though ready to move away from the leftist agenda voters rebuked in November. When he signed last-minute legislation to extend Bush-era tax cuts for all taxpayers, he disappointed his liberal supporters, who wanted to exclude taxpayers with incomes above certain thresholds. On the basis of this compromise,...