Sheldon Danziger talks to U.S. News & World Report for article, "When Obama Trades Jobs for a Higher Priority"

Sheldon Danziger spoke to U.S. News & World Report about the White House’s apparent shift away from its self-professed top priority of stimulating employment growth. In reaction to the continuing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, President Obama put a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling. On Tuesday, a federal judge overturned the moratorium explaining the decision would mean more job loss in the region—as many as 37,000 in the next year according to a report by the Lafayette Economic Development Authority. This raises the question: should jobs or the environment guide drilling policy?

Danziger suggests that a narrow focus on jobs might not be optimal. "It seems to me we should look at jobs policy and ask, 'what's the best thing to do for jobs policy?' Then we should look at environmental policy and say, 'what's the best thing we should do for environmental policy?'" he explained to U.S. News & World Report. "Let's say that tomorrow we found out that coal-fired plants were responsible for lots of birth defects. Then would you say, 'gee, it's a bad time to be shutting down coal-fired plants—we're going to lose so many jobs'?"