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Rep. Darrell Issa of California, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has found another target in the Obama administration’s policy agenda: energy. Late Monday, Issa released a scathing report accusing the White House of being complicit in driving up oil prices to push a move to alternative energy sources. Among other things, the report — “Rising Energy Costs: An Intentional Result of Government Action” — accused the administration of restricting access to domestic energy sources, hindering “fracking” technology and hampering the economic recovery by proposing new taxes on the energy industry.The report also says the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) coordinated...

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) is vowing to block a Senate vote to confirm President Obama’s choice to head the White House Office of Management and Budget unless a temporary ban on offshore oil-and-gas drilling is removed. Her pledge to hold up the nomination of Jack Lew represents a dramatic political escalation of Landrieu’s fight against the federal moratorium on deepwater drilling and the slowdown in permits for shallow water projects. RELATED ARTICLES Budget nominee Lew easily clears Senate panel “Due to the Administration’s unwillingness to reverse or modify its policies that have halted all deepwater and nearly all shallow-water...

Liberals air doubts over OMB pickBy Alexander Bolton - 07/23/10 06:00 AM ET Liberal Democrats are skeptical about President Obama’s decision to appoint a senior official from the Clinton administration to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). They suspect Jacob “Jack” Lew may share an affection for market-driven reforms they say were too popular among Clinton’s staff and that he would support cuts to Social Security and Medicare. “I’m concerned he doesn’t have an affinity for some of the entitlement programs that we think are critical,” said Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Grijalva...

Obama's OMB Pick Lew Headed Citi Unit That Shorted HousingJul 15 2010, 3:40 PM ET Imagine if President Obama's new OMB head had worked at one of the biggest Wall Street bailout recipients and headed a group that profited by shorting the housing market. That would be a public relations nightmare, but it also appears to be the reality the administration faces with the Jacob Lew nomination. His Citigroup unit had a big investment in the hedge fund run by John Paulson, also at the center of the SEC's Goldman Sachs lawsuit. The hedge fund made billions of dollars by...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will nominate Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew to serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget, a Cabinet-level post that plays a crucial role in shaping how the administration spends the public's money. In a statement, Obama said Lew will be "an extraordinary asset to this administration's efforts to cut down the deficit and put our nation back on a fiscally responsible path."