When the White House announced that September would bring yet another “hard pivot” to jobs, cynics smiled.
But could President Obama have the last laugh?
Consider the New York Times report that this summer, as gas prices started to climb, the Obama administration released crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — and waived burdensome regulations to allow foreign vessels to do the shipping.
The Jones Act, a 91-year-old protectionist law beloved by unions, says that purely domestic cargo must be shipped on vessels built, owned and crewed by Americans. But because American tankers aren’t big enough to carry the quantities of oil released — nearly 30 million barrels — hewing to the law would have caused huge delays in getting the crude to refineries and cheaper gas into Americans’ tanks.
Waiving the regulations was the right decision on Obama’s part.
Does it signal a new willingness to cut job-killing red tape? We hope so.
The president could start with regulations that led to the gas-price problem in the first place, by lifting prohibitions on drilling offshore and in Alaska.
The administration could also move to rapidly clear away remaining regulatory hurdles to the Keystone XL pipeline — which will bring cheaper, secure crude from the Canadian oil sands to the Gulf Coast refineries.
Obama’s next trick could then be to roll back recently unfurled EPA regulations that will kill coal-fired power plants across the country — driving up energy costs, which will show up as higher prices for consumer goods and fewer new jobs.
Of course, none of this will make Obama’s core constituents too happy. But there’s hope on that front.
Last year, as oil from the BP spill gushed into the Gulf of Mexico, Obama refused for weeks to waive the Jones Act and allow foreign ships to help clean up the mess. Then, unions trumped environmentalists.
With 2012 looming, this latest move suggests Obama may be willing to offend even the unions for a much bigger constituency: Americans scared stiff about the economy and hungry for jobs.
Smart move, Mr. President.
Toss the greenies under the bus next.