Do you remember when Barack Obama essentially said that he would bankrupt the coal industry? Let me jog your memory a little bit ...

In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle ... Obama says that he intends to bankrupt the coal industry. Keep in mind that last year, more than 120,000 Americans were employed by the coal industry. Also keep in mind that 49% of energy in this country is currently generated by coal. But what Obama wants to do is institute an aggressive cap-and-trade policy where "polluters" will be charged for every unit of emissions.

He says, "If someone wants to build a coal power plant they can, but it will bankrupt them because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being admitted."

As we know, cap-and-trade has been a lot harder to implement than the liberals expected. However, Obama has realized that cap-and-trade is not the only form of regulation that he can use to stifle the coal industry. Here's the latest ...

The Obama administration's own experts estimate their proposal for protecting streams from coal mining would eliminate thousands of jobs and slash production across much of the country, according to a government document obtained by The Associated Press.

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement document says the agency's preferred rules would impose standards for water quality and restrictions on mining methods that would affect the quality or quantity of streams near coal mines ... The proposal - part of a draft environmental impact statement - would affect coal mines from Louisiana to Alaska.

The office, a branch of the Interior Department, estimated that the protections would trim coal production to the point that an estimated 7,000 of the nation's 80,600 coal mining jobs would be lost. Production would decrease or stay flat in 22 states, but climb 15 percent in North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana.

So there you go. Barack Obama preaches about the need to create jobs, and yet apparently there is one major caveat: Creating jobs in the industries that he approves of. Take the impact of the drilling moratorium on jobs and the oil industry. PrezBo seems to be in the business of picking the winners and losers in this economy. The winners will be supported by your tax dollars and paid for by your grandchildren. The losers will be the inevitable collateral damage of a president who believes that America's greatness comes from government and that it always knows best.