Emmanuel: "You Never Want a Serious Crisis to Go to Waste"

Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead on climate change, even if it worsens the economy already in recession. That's the Obama viewpoint, confirmed by top aides. From the WSJ:

Mr. Obama, in a video for a climate-change summit Tuesday, pledged to pursue energy policies that would reduce greenhouse emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them an additional 80% by 2050. Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, speaking to a Wall Street Journal conclave of business leaders Tuesday, said the economic crisis facing the country is "an opportunity to do things you could not do before."

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," Mr. Emanuel said.

Obama insists on everything "going green," regardless of cost. In fact, getting federal funds (ie. the auto industry) will require that industries use the money for "green" purposes. So expect some of the funds that Paulson insisted on going to the rescue of the financial system to instead be diverted into "green projects."

Asked if this was the industrial policy of the incoming Obama administration, he [David Bonior] replied: "The answer is yes."