As OPEC Prepares to Meet, Chu Focuses on U.S. Energy
By STEPHEN POWER
Wall Street Journal
FEBRUARY 20, 2009
WASHINGTON -- Energy Secretary Steven Chu -- whose agency has long taken the lead on global oil-market policy -- said Thursday he doesn't know what the Obama administration would urge the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to do at its meeting next month.
"I'm not the administration," Mr. Chu said during a meeting with reporters Thursday. OPEC members are scheduled to meet March 15 to discuss the possibility of production cuts to respond to slumping prices. "I will be speaking and learning more about this in order to figure out what the U.S. position should be and what the president's position is," Mr. Chu said.
...
On Wednesday, when approached by reporters after a speech to a group of utility regulators, Mr. Chu declined to offer an opinion on whether OPEC should cut production, saying the issue was "not in my domain." He later told reporters on a conference call that his response to the question reflected "more of my naiveté than anything else."
Mr. Chu said Thursday he feels "like I've been dumped into the deep end of the pool" in confronting questions about oil policy, such as whether the administration would consider delaying scheduled deliveries of oil this spring to the nation's strategic petroleum reserves.
Mr. Chu is still without a deputy, and the administration has yet to nominate people to fill other high-level Energy Department posts, reflecting a broader challenge the administration faces staffing up cabinet departments to handle an array of initiatives called for by President Barack Obama.
Have you ever heard anything so absurd? This is the cabinet officer charged with implementing Obama's energy policy and the man is totally clueless as to what that policy is.
Besides, claiming that it's not in his domain to have an opinion on OPEC oil production is reminiscent of Obama suggesting an opinion on abortion was above his pay grade.
Why did the Senate confirm this clueless clown?
Obama's Administration may just make Jimmy Carter's seem competant by comparison!
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