While I’m quoted in the Houston Chronicle’s CERAweek column on an optimistic note, developments with the “stimulus” package make me less optimistic by the day. What I told Tom Fowler of the Chronicle, when discussing the anti-oil mentality of Representative Ed Markey, now chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment, was
I think Obama learned a lesson during the campaign where Republicans gained ground on the domestic drilling issue
I also said that,
I think he wants to be cautious at this point in the event we have another gasoline price spike.
Fowler cast my comments (quite accurately) as a hope that Obama would be a moderating force over the more radically inclined members of his party, when it comes to energy policy. However, having seen Obama’s insistence on keeping his “green” energy elements in the stimulus program, and his apparent attitude that his electoral victory was an absolute endorsement of virtually anything the Democrats want to do, I’m less confident that he’ll moderate much of anything that Pelosi, Reid, or Markey dream up.