The tyranny of oil and bankrupting coal companies
In 2008, Barack Obama campaigned on a platform of ending “the tyranny of oil” and bankrupting coal companies, whose energy production would be replaced by promising green companies like Solyndra—a “true engine of economic growth” that was “leading the way toward a brighter and more prosperous future.” An imminent “Peak Oil” disaster was viewed as a certainty. Democrats ran successfully on a platform of cap and trade, bolstered by the apocalyptic and unchallenged predictions of movies and media like Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.
Things have certainly changed. Today, Democrats in contentious races are not only lessening their opposition to fossil fuels, they are competing to take positions that are more pro-fossil fuels than Republicans.
In Kentucky, Alison Grimes claims to be more pro-coal than incumbent Mitch McConnell, one of the leaders in defeating the cap and trade bill.
In Louisiana, Democratic incumbent Mary Landrieu claims to be more pro-fossil fuels than challenger Bill Cassidy, who himself supports both hydraulic fracturing and construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline and says he wants to “promote natural gas as a transportation fuel.”
Virtually no one with an election to win is opposing the Keystone XL Pipeline. The opposition’s longtime biggest backer, billionaire Tom Steyer, has run exactly zero anti-Keystone ads this election and is bankrolling pro-Keystone candidates.