Want to boost the number of high-paying jobs in the United States? Robert J. Samuelson explains in the latest Newsweek that an increased focus on the oil and natural-gas industries would boost the number of jobs for ?geologists, petroleum engineers, roustabouts, steelworkers.?

Though straightforward, this logic mostly eludes the Obama administration, which is fixated on “green jobs,” and wind and solar energy. Championing clean fuels has become a political set piece. On Earth Day (April 22), the president visited an Iowa factory that builds towers for wind turbines. “It’s time for us to [begin] a new era of energy exploration in America,” he said. “We can remain the world’s leading importer of oil, or we can become the world’s leading exporter of clean energy.”

The president is lauded as a great educator; in this case, he provided much miseducation. He implied that there’s a choice between promoting renewables and relying on oil. Actually, the two are mostly disconnected.