US Energy

After 3+ years of obama trying to raise the cost of gasoline and electricity on US CITIZENS, I have to wonder why GOP candidates up for election haven't been pounding his policies. I mean, the US has substantial deposits of coal, oil, and natural gas. We have the technology and the labor force to use these sources of energy. Why are we putting coal miners, oil and gas well workers, steel fabrication and erection workers into the unemployment lines? Why are we buying oil and some coal from other countries when we could use our own? Why does obama give other countries money to explore for and drill for oil rather than US companies?

After working most of my career for companies that produce fans, scrubbers, collectors, and other types of air pollution control equipment, I know there are companies that can build and install state of the art equipment. Since 2008 many of these steel fabrication companies have closed their doors and put their workers into the unemployment lines. Steel fabrication is not something that can be learned overnight and it's not an easy job. Fitting and welding are becoming lost arts. The last 3+ years have not helped these companies and workers. We have the technology and labor force to build or modify and install additional equipment to control air pollution. So why aren't we using existing technology and methods until "green" sources of energy are better developed and cheaper to produce?

Now the obama administration through the EPA is trying to impose limits on fossil fuel (coal and oil) fired electric generation plants that provide the majority of our power. This will put many coal miners out of work and cause electricity costs to skyrocket, which obama has admitted is part of his plan. Granted, there are many things we can do to reduce our needs for electricity. However, raising the cost and putting hardships on US CITIZENS already pushed to their budgetary limits BEFORE other technologies and energy production is in place is ridiculous. We need to be using the energy sources available to us NOW while developing and reducing the production costs of new sources. Then after we have sufficient production of new sources of energy the switch could be made with a minimum of hardship on US CITIZENS.