Not only does The One intend to bankrupt our nation’s coal industry after his coronation; he plans to make the price of electricity “skyrocket” for every American household. That’s one of the messages Obama delivered on that Jan. 22 taped interview with the San Francisco Chronicle that the Chronicle reporters somehow forgot to report about in their newspaper. (You can listen to the audio on Hot Air-and thanks, too to Newsbusters and National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez.)

Here’s what Obama said:

“You know, when I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, uh, you know – Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it – whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, uh, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.”

Oh, thank you, great President Obama!

And just as Obama’s “spread the wealth around” tax plan has nothing to do with raising revenue and everything to do with making productive people suffer by having their money taken away from them in the interests of “fairness,” Obama’s planned electricity hikes are also about making people suffer. The idea, as Obama said in the Jan. 22 interview, is that Americans would feel so much pain wondering how they could afford to keep the lights on and the heater running that they would goad legislators into building the global-warming-panic regime dear to Obama’s heart.

“The problem is not technical, uh, and the problem is not mastery of the legislative intricacies of Washington. The problem is, uh, can you get the American people to say, ‘This is really important,’ and force their representatives to do the right thing? That requires mobilizing a citizenry. That requires them understanding what is at stake. Uh, and climate change is a great example.”

Gee, I just can’t wait to be “mobilized” myself.