Puzzling?

Submitted by admin on Fri, 03/02/2012 - 16:06

At FoxNews:
 

...On Tuesday, Energy Secretary Stephen Chu was on the hot seat, when Mississippi Republican Rep. Alan Nunnelee asked if the Department of Energy is actively trying to lower fuel costs.
 
"Is the overall goal to get our price of gasoline down?" Nunnelee asked.
 
"No, the overall goal is to decrease our dependency on oil, to build and strengthen our economy," Chu responded...
 

At Heritage:
 
...As shocking as his remarks are, they shouldn’t come as a surprise. Chu has a long record of advocating for higher gas prices. In 2008, he stated, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” Last March, he reiterated his point in an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, noting that his focus is to ease the pain felt by his energy policies by forcing automakers to make more fuel-efficient automobiles. “What I’m doing since I became Secretary of Energy has been quite clear. What I have been doing is developing methods to take the pain out of high gas prices.”
 
One of those methods is dumping taxpayer dollars into alternative energy projects like the Solyndra solar plant. Another is subsidizing the purchase of high-cost electric cars like the Chevy Volt to the tune of $7,500 per car (which the White House wants to increase to $10,000). In both cases, those methods aren’t working. Solyndra went bankrupt because its product couldn’t bear the weight of market pressures, and Chevy Volts aren’t selling, even with taxpayer-funded rebates. What’s the president’s next plan? Harvesting “a bunch of algae” as a replacement for oil...
 

And now there's this, at the Detroit Free Press:
 
General Motors has told 1,300 employees at its Detroit Hamtramck that they will be temporarily laid off for five weeks as the company halts production of the Chevrolet Volt and its European counterpart, the Opel Ampera.
 
“Even with sales up in February over January, we are still seeking to align our production with demand,” said GM spokesman Chris Lee.
 
Lee said employees were told Thursday that production would put on hold from March 19 to April 23.
 
The Chevrolet Volt, an extended-range electric car, is both a political lightning rod and a symbol of the company’s technological capability.
 
Chevrolet sold 1,023 Volts in the U.S. in February and has sold 1,626 so far this year.
 
In 2011, Chevrolet sold 7,671 Volts, but fell short of its initial goal of 10,000...
 

Why is this so (h/t Chrissy The Hyphenated)?
 
None of this is really very puzzling, is it?