Obama nominee faces questions about energy views

The Princeton economist and labor expert is set to appear before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs as it examines his nomination to chair the three-member council. Krueger has drawn the ire of oil industry advocates and Senate Republicans for testifying on Capitol Hill previously that "tax subsidies for the oil and gas industry encourage the overproduction" of those fossil fuels. As the Obama administration's assistant secretary for economic policy, Krueger in 2009 also told a Senate subcommittee that "the administration believes that it is no longer sufficient to address our nation's energy needs by finding more fossil fuels, and instead we must take dramatic steps towards becoming a clean energy economy."

Although the remarks matched the administration's consistent policies toward alternative energy and conventional fossil fuels, they drew fire from congressional Republicans then and now.

Administration's war on affordable energy, on American jobs and on our economy

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said President Barack Obama's nomination of Krueger illustrates the "administration's war on affordable energy, on American jobs and on our economy." Inhofe has placed holds blocking swift Senate confirmation of other administration nominees, raising the prospect he might try the same tactic with Krueger's nomination. Inhofe isn't on the Senate banking panel that will be questioning Krueger tomorrow. But other oil patch senators are, including David Vitter, R-La. Stephen Comstock, the tax policy manager for the American Petroleum Institute, said he hopes senators ask Krueger to explain his past statements about domestic energy production. "The concern that we have with Krueger is that in the past, he's said that tax policies lead to an overproduction," Comstock said. But, "is that necessarily true in a situation when we're trying to get as much energy as we can?" Obama has hailed Krueger's work to combat "a complex and fast-moving financial crisis" as the Treasury Department's chief economist and as its assistant secretary for economic policy. Under Krueger, according to the department, the administration created a number of new programs designed to boost the ailing economy, including the so-called Cash for Clunkers initiative that allowed some motorists to get rebates from the federal government for trading in old vehicles with low fuel economy. Related: Democratic Congressman Calls Obama's Economic Advisers Pick Out of Touch Inhofe Blasts Obama Pick for Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers