Energy: A Top Priority for Obama, But Not for Voters

Meredith Jessup | November 03, 2009 2:00 PM

The White House homepage today highlights the Obama administration's dedication to "lead the global economy in clean energy." Congress is eagerly awaiting the end of the health care debate so it can take up the Democrats' cap-and-trade plan. But the latest word from the American people is that energy policy is dead last on their priority list these days.

A recent poll from USA Today shows that even when Barack Obama was elected president last November, only 6% of Americans thought energy should be his top priority. Now, a year later, even fewer think this policy warrents the White House's full attention. Only 2% of Americans now think the President's top priority should be energy, well-behind other top concerns like the economy, Iraq and Afghanistan, health care and the federal budget deficit.

With this insight, why is the Obama administration continuing to pursue its cap-and-trade policy as if it were a top priority? And since the nation's economy and budget deficits are so high on Americans' priority lists, why would the administration pursue cap-and-trade knowing that it would have significant negative impacts on business' bottom lines, homeowners' pocketbooks and the nation's economy as a whole?

PS--Why is the White House website reporting that the stimulus plan has "created or saved" jobs for "over one million people" when its own Recovery.gov is only reporting 640,000?