On this evenings Kudlow Report, guest Steve Hayward discussed the failed environmental policies of the Obama administration. Along with the administration unwillingness to tap the abundance of natural resources currently present in the United States.
LARRY KUDLOW: President Obama set to unveil drastic new executive actions and regulations tomorrow to curb greenhouse gas emissions. It really looks like a war on coal. Just check out how the coal stocks did today. Here’s a couple of them. Arch Coal, Peabody, Consol, Alpha, look they’re all down, 6%, 7%, 8%. One is down 16%. Incredible stuff. Here now to counter the president's climate change confusion is our friend Steve Hayward, a columnist with Powerline blog and a visiting professor at the university of Colorado Boulder. All right first question, Steve, is it in fact the war on coal?
STEVE HAYWARD: Well look if you ask any environmentalist what item number one through number five on their wish list is, every one of them is kill coal. Now I think the only thing drastic about the speech Obama is giving tomorrow is his desperate political need to please environmentalists. The EPA two months ago had to withdraw their initial coal regulations because they realized they would not survive legal challenge. So It’s not clear to me what Obama is going to propose that will be new or that won't also be vulnerable to legal challenge. I think the thing to watch for which he has not telegraphed is whether he will go further and not only try and attack power plants but whether he’ll all so announce steps to try and block the export of American coal. You know American coal exports to Europe for example have been going up the last five years. That’s the most serious thing to worry about in addition to an attack on power plants.
KUDLOW: There may be climate change. I’m not smart enough to know. There may be climate change. What I want is know is it manmade climate change, or is it natural climate change or is it caused by the sun climate change. How do we know it's caused by coal how do we know it's carbon emissions?
HAYWARD: Well look, right now what's happening in the state of debate is quite interesting. We’ve gone about 17 years without any warming. And the flat period is now falling below the lowest estimates of the lowest projections of the models. So there's a crisis right now in climate science. And even the mainstream media is picking this up. The "Economist" magazine I love their phrase you would like this for a CNBC show. The "Economist" magazine said, if climate science were a bond agency, it would be put on the watch list for a downgrade.
KUDLOW: I do like that very much. So how can the president, knowing this, just sick the EPA or go through this whole thing who knows what's going to be there? He may have more Solyndra’s in there, more lousy energy department investments in there for renewable energy. Meanwhile, we are sitting on the greatest miracle in energy with the oil and natural gas fracking revolution and he wants to single out coal and destroy tens of thousands of jobs.
HAYWARD: Yeah, his preview of the speech on Saturday had one really ludacris you line. He said, we need scientists to invent new forms of energy and farmers to grow it, which sounds like he's doubling down on this ethanol boondoggle. And apparently another point in the speech will be to open up 600 million acres of federal land for more renewable energy like wind and solar. The administration has been hostile to increased oil and gas production on federal land. Production of oil and gas on federal land has been declining under Obama. And all of the increase we've seen in the last three or four years has been on private or state land. if the federal government was reasonable at all, we'd be seeing oil production going up even more than it is.
KUDLOW: we ought to open up the federal lands to fracking. Last one, Steve, do you think he's going to pull a fast one tomorrow, a carbon tax or worse, go back to cap and trade tax?
HAYWARD: I don't think so. I think the carbon tax story is an interesting one. If it's only ruled out a carbon tax but he would let republicans propose a carbon tax in exchange for tax reform, although we're a long way from that point. I think he knows cap and trade is dead. But if you're an environmentalist, you are very disappointed with Obama because he did not lift a finger in his first term to help the cap and trade bill or do anything else on climate change he's an utter failure from their point of view.
KUDLOW: Yes or no, are we going to get the keystone pipeline finally? Yes or no?
HAYWARD: No, I think he's going to find a way to try and nix it. He shouldn't but he might.
KUDLOW: That's the worst news yet. Steve, thank you very much, buddy.