Action on energy by US President Barack Obama will partly answer the biggest question raised by sweeping Republican victories in midterm elections Nov. 2: Will the president acknowledge this repudiation of his liberalism and change course accordingly?
Republicans, demolished only 2 years earlier in elections that wafted Obama into the White House, have regained control of the House of Representatives and increased by six the number of seats they occupy in the Senate. They also displaced Democratic governors in at least 10 states, with elections in six other states undecided at this writing. Among partisan state legislative chambers, 60 of which were controlled by Democrats and 36 by Republicans before Nov. 2, Republicans appear to have won control of at least 20.
Power surge
This astonishing power surge, by a political party all but declared extinct in 2008, can't be written off as the usual political losses in the middle of a president's first term. And it reflects more than mass anger over economic distress, the standard explanation by news media pundits.
Anger alone can't explain what Obama described in a Nov. 3 press conference as a "shellacking" in the elections. It can't by itself describe influence of the upstart Tea Party movement for limited government and fiscal responsibility, a movement allied with but directed as much at wayward Republicans as at Democrats. It can't explain steady deterioration of public support for big-government health care reform, which Democrats claimed as a signature achievement. And it can't explain why another big-government initiative, a cap-and-trade system to cut emissions of greenhouse gases, fizzled in the Senate after blitzing through the House.
Americans are angry about more than an economy that has defied big-government stimulus spending. They are angry about a sharp turn their country has taken under Obama and a Democratic Congress toward big government as the answer to all questions and solution to all problems. Americans in general aren't as liberal as Obama and leaders of the current Congress. And they have made their differing position on the ideological spectrum very clear.
This position contradicts Obama's core beliefs about the role of government. Consistently and steadfastly, the president has tried to expand the role of government in American life in pursuit of lofty goals. Now he'll have to moderate his activism. It's unclear whether he knows how much he must change.
A test will come when Obama, in his state-of-the-union speech and budget proposal next year, describes plans for energy. So far, his administration has sought to displace hydrocarbons with renewable energy by raising taxes on fossil fuels and boosting alternatives with subsidies and consumption mandates.
The costs of this approach are potentially huge and largely camouflaged by the befuddling complexity of implementation. Beyond cost, the approach is fundamentally wrong. Even pushed by the government, renewable energy can't replace fossil energy to any major degree anytime soon. A reasonable policy goal for renewable energy is supplementation of oil, gas, and coal through fiscally responsible assistance aimed at helping new energy forms become competitive. Supplementation with measured help differs greatly from forced displacement. It's also more fiscally responsible and better for the economic development of favored energy forms. Yet the administration made displacement explicit in narratives accompanying both of its budget proposals, in which it disparaged "overproduction of oil and gas" and favored "encouraging the use of renewable energy resources."
Presuming control
This is a government proposing to make energy choices otherwise made by the market, a government thus presuming to control a vital realm of economic decision-making. This is big government in action.
If Obama heard the rejection of just this type of government that radiates clearly from Nov. 2 election results, he'll propose something quite different on energy next year. The oil and gas industry will provide a service not just to itself but also to its customers and American taxpayers if it helps him absorb the full message.
More Oil & Gas Journal Current Issue Articles
More Oil & Gas Journal Archives Issue Articles
View Oil and Gas Articles on PennEnergy.com