Detroit News rips Obama’s energy plan

By J.R. Hoeft

Obama announced his energy plan in Michigan yesterday, calling on Detroit to retool and produce one million Hybrid cars by 2015, among other proposals.

In today’s Detroit News, the editorial page has some choice words for Obama’s plan:

The latest additions to Sen. Barack Obama’s energy plan, outlined during an appearance in Lansing Monday, may win the Democratic presidential candidate some votes from disgruntled consumers in November, but they’ll do nothing to answer the nation’s long-term needs.
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Draining the reserve would drop consumer fuel costs for the short run, as would any sudden increase in supply. But then what? Once the reserves are gone, prices would go back up, and perhaps even higher because the reserves ultimately would have to be replaced.
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Perhaps the senator is hoping the [$1000 proposed rebate] checks will make Americans forget, as he apparently has, about what happened when Presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter played the price and profit limiting game the 1970s.

As the pay-off for oil exploration dwindled, so did oil supplies, driving up fuel prices and creating long lines at the pump. There’s no reason to think Obama would be any more successful in executing this dubious redistribution strategy.

His plan also would give the state-owned oil companies in places like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela a huge advantage [em. added] over domestic companies, since they’d be beyond the reach of Obama’s profits grab.

But, perhaps the New York Post said it best of Obama’s new-found positions on off-shore drilling and tapping the strategic oil reserves:

Until recently, Obama was adamantly against offshore drilling and tapping the SPR.

Why the shift? Because voters are longing for relief from $4 gas and he thinks his new views will win them over.

So much for principles.