If there was really a “women’s issue” this election it wasn't birth control, it was energy policy.
Women are the leading consumers of everything from groceries to cars. Most moms like myself are responsible for shuttling kids around, doing laundry, and paying bills – activities that put into sharp relief the impact high-energy prices have on families. And there is good reason to be concerned about gas and electric prices over the next four years.
Throughout the campaign President Obama talked about plans to invest more taxpayer dollars in green energy companies; but while I have a deep interest in preserving our environment and have hope for renewable energy sources, the reality is that the wind, solar and geothermal energy that the president seems to see as the key to solving our energy problems only make up a fraction of our total energy supply (about 1.5 percent in 2011). And that number is unlikely to budge much anytime soon, no matter how many more billions of dollars the government sinks into subsidizing these “green” efforts.
Even more concerning is the president’s seeming disregard for the value of our natural resources. In fact, he seems intent on “bankrupting” the coal industry – an energy sector that represents nearly a quarter of total U.S. energy supply, a massive 42 percent of electricity generation.
There are pluses and minuses to every sector of the energy industry – oil, coal, nuclear, natural gas, wind – but it should be up to the marketplace, not a president, not government bureaucrats, not regulators, to determine where our energy comes from.