Obama Energy Policy Linked To Black Job Decline

WASHINGTON - As President Obama meets today in North Carolina with his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness and tours a local "green economy" company, members of the conservative black leadership network Project 21 are reminding him that the black unemployment rate remains over 16 percent and urging him to stop his job-killing war on fossil fuels.

"Instead of currying the favor of the global warming crowd, the President should focus on getting people back to work. Green regulations based on junk science kill jobs and minimize productivity. Profits are now lost to accommodating new laws and regulations instead of hiring new employees and furthering innovation," said Project 21's Ak'Bar Shabazz, who owns several entertainment and telecommunications businesses.

"President Obama and his administration tend to ignore the ramifications of academic theories in real world application. It seems President Obama wants green energy to be his New Deal, but -- if left unchecked -- government subsidies to green energy companies will drive our nation into bankruptcy," said Project 21 member and Chicago-based talk radio host Charles Butler. "The Spanish now recognize their push for a green economy was the catalyst to their fiscal turmoil."

While the national unemployment rate as determined by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics was 9.1 percent for May, the Bureau's "employment-population ratio" -- the percentage of people able to work who are currently employed -- was 58.4 percent. According to an analysis of the ratio published by the Daily Caller, only 43 percent of black men between the ages of 18 and 29 were employed in 2010, with only 21 percent of black male high school dropouts in full-time positions.

Project 21 Fellow Deneen Borelli noted that Obama Administration regulations on coal, oil and natural gas contribute to unemployment and higher prices, saying: "It's disappointing that over 90 percent of blacks voted for Obama in 2008 only to be thanked with the President's toxic energy policy that is causing job losses and higher energy prices. Obama's war on fossil fuels is a war against all Americans, but it's especially harmful to low- and fixed-income households. We have a wealth of natural resources in America, and we should utilize those resources to put Americans back to work, lower energy costs and grow our economy."

Borelli added: "Obama's energy agenda picks winner and losers, and his winners are being propped up with our tax dollars in a situation that creates an unsustainable green economic bubble."

As part of his meeting with his Jobs Council in Durham, North Carolina, the President is scheduled to tour Cree, Inc. Cree, a 2010 recipient of $39 million in stimulus cash, manufactures light-emitting diode (LED) lighting products.