AP Ignores Chu's Indifference Towards High Gas Prices, and His Retraction; NYT: Call For Euro-Level Prices Was 'Inconvenient'
On February 28, as reported at the Politico, Obama administration Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a House panel the following in response to a question he interrupted about his interest in having an "overall goal" of lowering gas prices: “No, the overall goal is to decrease our dependency on oil, to build and strengthen our economy.” Yesterday, also as carried at the Politico, Chu effectively retracted that statement, as well as his more infamous September 2008 assertion that he would like to see gas prices in the U.S. resemble those seen in Europe.
A search on Chu's full name (not in quotes) at the Associated Press's main national site and through Google at its hosted2.ap.org site returns nothing relevant to either story. It would not be unreasonable to assert that the Politico, with little or nothing in the way of direct subscriber or member outreach, it the place where many negative stories about the Obama administration get posted -- and go no further.
I should also note that most of the coverage of Chu's retraction alludes to his 2008 comment but not his Congressional testimony two weeks ago. I guess discounting what was said four years ago is easier.
Here's an example from the Green Blog at the News York Times via John M. Broder:
An Inconvenient Statement, Retracted
Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Tuesday walked away from his oft-quoted pre-Cabinet statement that the United States should deliberately raise gasoline prices to discourage consumption.
In a 2008 interview with The Wall Street Journal before he was appointed President Obama’s energy secretary, Dr. Chu, then the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels of Europe.”
Dr. Chu, a winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, has spent much of his career seeking alternative forms of energy to try to mitigate the global warming effects of the burning of fossil fuels.
His views on gasoline prices, while endorsed by many scientists and environmentalists, are politically off-message today, when gasoline prices are spiking and Mr. Obama is seeking to avoid political blame for them. The president has repeatedly said he has no “silver bullet” to bring prices down but adds that he is doing everything he can to increase domestic oil supplies, including opening large areas of public lands and waters to drilling.
Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, has called on Mr. Obama to dismiss Dr. Chu because of his stated view on gasoline prices.
So in a hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday, Dr. Chu walked away from his earlier comment. “I no longer share that view,” he said. “Of course we don’t want the price of gasoline to go up. We want it to go down.”
"Of course" that's not what you said two weeks ago, pal -- and especially since his original statement was made shortly after a high gas-price bout that was a bit worse (so far) than the current one, it's more than fair to question Chu's level of sincerity.
An "advanced" search on Chu's full name (in quotes) at the Times, which I believe only lists items appearing in print, indicates that the Old Gray Lady didn't permit its print subscribers or digital subscribers who aren't inclined to visit its blogs to learn of Chu's retraction through them.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
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Comments
Anyway, what are we left with?
Submitted by NC Boy on Wed, 03/14/2012 - 11:31pm.
Basically, he is telling us that it would be OK to have lower gas prices for awhile, but he would like to see them raised just as soon as that can be done without taking down the economy. So much to look forward to (or should I say, "Chu on").
This must be an example of an
Submitted by killa37 on Wed, 03/14/2012 - 11:57pm.
This must be an example of an 'inconvenient truth'...................and didn't Mr. Chu-chu make another 'gaffe' (telling the truth accidentally) recently by saying that the REGIME wasn't interested in bringing down fuel prices????
And now he's laying out more BS, in the form of some 'retraction' or 'recalibration'??? And he ACTUALLY said that Boy BlahBlah is doing 'all he can to increase domestic oil supplies'??? Did I miss something here??? Didn't Boy Barry just VETO the Keystone Pipeline?? Didn't he shut down a large percentage of the Gulf oil drilling industry during the 'just fix the damn hole' episode???
Didn't he (and Count Dracula Soros) just 'invest' a TON of money in Brazil's oil drilling ventures - with the promise to 'be their best customer'??? And from what I've gathered, there is no spike in oil drilling on 'public' lands, or waters, to speak of.
Of course, everything that I have written will be reported 180 degrees opposite by the MSM and the StateRun Media.
Bizarro Opposite World.....
Submitted by Netizen Kane on Thu, 03/15/2012 - 1:17am.
Oh sure! Everybody knows that Steven Chu took the appointment by Obama just so that he can do the opposite of everything he believes in and has advocated over his lifetime.
I'm not sure which is worse: Obama's intentional destruction of the United States, or the imbeciles in Congress who are letting it happen......
People want higher gas prices
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Thu, 03/15/2012 - 11:03am.
People want higher gas prices unless it affects them. If the idea can be gotten to them high energy prices affects them in all ways then perhaps the country has a chance. It affects transport and electricity prices.
'People want higher gas
Submitted by killa37 on Thu, 03/15/2012 - 12:18pm.
'People want higher gas prices'??? Really??? I guess I haven't met anybody with that viewpoint.
News You May Not Have Seen on the MSM
Submitted by berlet98 on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 2:03am.
News You May Not Have Seen on the MSM
It’s impossible to post incisive observations on everything President Barack Obama’s mainstream media report and don’t report on significant stories and events that reflect negatively on their anointed one.
Some stories and events become so public that the MSM is forced to mention them and then, dutifully, bury them in the journalistic graveyard as if they had never happened.
Therefore, in the interests of public service, I present a few Obama-related stories which have either been ignored by the MSM or which the mainstreamers quickly relegated to the scrapheap along with tales of Martians invading Earth and Democrats acting stupidly.
The story of Dems so enamored of their hero that they superimposed a picture of Obama in place of the 50 stars on the American flag, reflecting their total ignorance of proper flag protocols, was briefly covered by the MSM, without commentary on those time-honored protocols.
The next steps might be his face on a trillion dollar bill and Mount Rushmore.
It gets much better or much worse, depending on your political perspective.
. The MSM gave little play to the thoughts of Steven Chu, Obama’s Energy Secretary, on gas prices both before and after he was appointed. Chu, who admitted he doesn’t drive a car, had advocated for European-level gas prices of ten dollars a gallon in the U.S. and repeated that wish even after prices began to soar.
The media also ignored his backtracking in the face of Republican derision and Chu now says, “I no longer share that view. . . Of course, we don’t want the price of gasoline to go up. We want it to go down.”
But, of course!
Outside of the administration, I don’t know who else shared Chu’s view of the benefits of astronomical gas prices. I suspect the nitwit DOE secretary got a call from one of Obama’s henchmen telling him to shut up and retreat from his imbecilic position.
. On a “comedic” front in America’s culture war, black comedian Chris Rock reverted to form and exploded when asked a question by conservative author of Obama Zombies and Hollywood Hypocrites, Jason Mattera.
Last year, Rock had incoherently said in Esquire, “When I see the Tea Party and all this stuff, it actually feels like racism’s almost over. Because this is the last–this is the act up before the sleep. They’re going crazy. They’re insane. You want to get rid of them,” and Mattera asked him to explain his baseless comments.
Instead of clarifying, Rock erupted, ripped the camera out of the hands of Mattera’s camerawoman, hurled it 50 feet, and challenged Mattera to a fight–while Rock was in the protection of two bodyguards.
. Arizona’s Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, clearly regards the president and his immigration policies the same way he thinks of rattlesnakes and illegal aliens. . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=17403.)