Rahm-bo? When it Comes to Real Change the President's Chief-of-Staff Should Be Called Rahm-faux

What happened to Rahm Emanuel’s enthusiasm for CNG?

By Marc J. Rauch
Exec. Vice President/Co-Publisher
THE AUTO CHANNEL

In July 2008, when President Obama’s Chief-of-Staff was a mere Congressman from Illinois and the fourth ranking House of Representatives Democrat, Rahm Emanuel sponsored Federal legislation that would have mandated that automakers make 10 percent of their fleet vehicles to run on natural gas by the year 2018. The bill also would have required the addition of natural gas pumps at 20,000 filling stations across the country, virtually putting to rest most of the “insufficient infrastructure” argument used by alt-fuel naysayers and oil company cronies.

Speaking about the legislation, Emanuel said, “This proposal is a hat trick for America: it's good for our environment, good for our national security and good for drivers who are suffering at the pump. Natural gas is cheap, green and American-made and it’s time we encouraged the use of natural gas vehicles here in America.” He added, “American drivers should be able to buy a car that runs on a cleaner fuel that is currently half the cost of gas. Developing cars that run on natural gas and making it available at the gas station or at home will save money for consumers and help end our dependence on foreign oil.” “The United States has abundant natural gas reserves; it’s time to start making those reserves work for us.”

Obviously, since we haven’t heard anything further about this bill, it went no-where.

But what did advance, rather mightily, was Rahm Emanuel’s career: he became the right hand man of the President of the United States. A position that has been called “Co-President.”

Just after Barak Obama was elected, and Emanuel was tapped to bring his dancing skills to a higher stage, the New York Times called Emanuel "one of Congress’s biggest proponents of compressed natural gas cars."

Rahm and Barry share a moment in the Oval Office

The Times report went on to say that “The choice of Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois as chief of staff could be good news for the natural gas industry…” Indeed, many alternative fuel supporters were greatly encouraged that Obama would make the changes in our national energy policy that he promised during the campaign.

To date, we’ve not seen any strong declarative changes in overall policy or any measures that would reduce our dependency on oil, foreign or otherwise. The few efforts made by the President and Congress could best be compared to the first pitch made by Obama at this year’s MLB All-Star Game. Did you see it? In Brooklyn, people would say, “He throws like a girl!”

Okay, so what happened? Is a CNG mandate not a hat trick for America? Is it not good for our security and environment? Is it not cheaper or greener or American made? Do we not have abundant reserves? Will the adoption of CNG mandates not create new jobs? Is the economy and energy not the two biggest concerns we have? Is this a bad time for you Rahm?

Or is the position of Chief of Staff not a powerful position? Is it just a clerical office position? Is Rahm-bo only a glorified stenographer? Are we gonna have another round of Executive DNA getting spilled here?

Can someone, anyone, shed some light on this?

The puzzling thing to me is the vigor at which Emanuel promoted the legislation, in the first place. Why was he even the bill’s sponsor? Illinois is not a big natural gas producer; it’s the third lowest of all states with natural gas production. It had to be one of two things: He really believed in the proposal and the positive benefits of CNG, or he was being paid by somebody to support the legislation. So, again, what happened? Why did Emanuel drop his interest? Why did the payoffs, if any, stop; and who was making them, if they were being made?