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June 13, 2011
Crony Capitalism and Obama’s Anti-Coal Crusade
By Ed Lasky

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Barack Obama has long sought to bankrupt the coal industry. But, Cook County politician that he is and always will be, the relevant question is: who benefits from his plans wreck a major portion of our economy while also boosting electricity prices across America?

A clue: he and his pals from Chicago have incestuous ties to the one company whose prospects will be boosted by Obama’s policies.

While Barack Obama has broken many promises he made along the campaign trail to the Oval Office, one promise seems close to whatever heart he may have: to bankrupt the coal industry.

He told the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle on January 17, 2008 of his plans:

Rest:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/crony_capitalism_and_obamas_anti-coal_crusade.html

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2008-01-25/business/0801250129_1_exelon-president-obama-barack

Obama’s Exelon ties merit close look

January 25, 2008|By JAY HANCOCK

Pay no attention to whether Sen. Barack Obama’s ties to Exelon Corp. might make him sympathetic to storing nuclear waste in Nevada. That argument, aired before that state’s Democratic caucuses last week, is a sideshow.

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But the Exelon-Obama link is especially strong. Exelon employees and others close to the company have given almost $195,000 to Obama, according to the latest records. Exelon is surpassed among corporate Obama donors by only Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers and a couple of other companies, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

One of Obama’s biggest fundraising “bundlers,” packaging money from multiple individuals, is Frank M. Clark, chairman of Commonwealth Edison, the big Illinois utility owned by Exelon. Exelon director John W. Rogers Jr., chief of mutual fund company Ariel Capital Management, also has given thousands to Obama.

There are other reasons to ask if an Obama administration might be too sympathetic to big electricity.

Last year Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, frequently described as Obama’s mentor, single-handedly killed a bill that would have extended price caps for customers of Commonwealth Edison and other utilities.

When he was Bill Clinton’s energy secretary, Obama campaign co-chair Federico Pena vigorously promoted electricity deregulation, promised it would save consumers money and - according to a 2002 story in The Washington Times - personally urged Enron crook Kenneth Lay to lobby the president on the matter.

Exelon’s chief lobbyist, Elizabeth A. Moler, was Pena’s deputy at the Energy Department.

As a new member of the Illinois Senate in 1997, Obama voted for an electricity-deregulation bill that his staff says was supported by consumer groups and was far less than what power providers wanted. Nevertheless, just as in Maryland, deregulation set the stage for price increases beyond what can be explained by higher costs for generation fuels such as coal and natural gas.

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