Posted by
Dan Abbett on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 11:06:22 AM
The United States Senate is said to be “the world’s greatest deliberative body.” What is obvious from watching this “great body” propose every alternative under the sun to address skyrocketing gas prices, while avoiding the real solution, is that one word in that statement requires change. The word deliberative must be changed to debilitated.
The reason for high prices for gas and oil products is simple. A highly productive nation with a very strong economy requires a lot of energy to keep it going. That energy comes from oil, a product for which we now “outsource” the greatest percentage of our requirement. In short, we have no control of the supply for our growing demand
The solution for this problem is equally simple; exploit the vast quantities of our domestic resources. What does the great-debilitated body propose? Rebates, treat oil companies as monopolies, tax the hand that energizes them, reduce their incentive to provide that energy and chastise them for not pursuing alternatives that would put them out of business.
Two factors must be satisfied to move our energy infrastructure away from being predominately fueled by oil. The obvious first is the development of an alternative. Secondly, we must accept that oil will be the main source of energy until that alternative is commercially available. The only obstacle between energy independence in the short term, until we can successfully develop energy alternatives, is a handful of environmental extremists.
While Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba and now even China encroach on rich oil deposits that are well within the waters available to the United States, we are prevented from tapping these reserves because of the environmental lobby. With the questionable exception of Mexico, the other three nations are openly hostile to the U.S. and are significantly less capable of ensuring environmental protections.
Not a peep however, out of the rabid enviros as these hostile nations move into the very areas off limits to domestic exploration. Nor any peep from the great “debilitaters” to put reason above politics and provide leadership in the face of a looming energy calamity. Oh, I forgot, their inability to do anything other than point fingers, obfuscate and lay blame is all Bush’s fault.
There are guffaws aplenty over the latest calls from the White House, for investigations into price-fixing or price gouging by oil companies or their subsidiaries. While there is a degree of justification for snickering at this spectacle, there is also another side of the issue that must be examined.
It is the politicians, environmental extremists and an agenda driven media that are exploiting the “Big Oil” component of the problem. By so doing, they have put the focus for solving the problem on the oil companies and away from themselves. This is political opportunism at its worst. Now, and in spite of the plethora of facts that are available to demonstrate that the oil problem is clearly one of supply and demand, a great many people still believe that the high price of gas is a function of the “greedy” oil companies.
The president is really between the proverbial rock and hard place here. If he chooses to explain the issue as one of supply and demand, he is “beholden” to Big Oil. If he calls for investigations that will prove or disprove any collusion or price-fixing by the oil companies, he is labeled a fool, a panderer and his actions disgraceful. To his chagrin, there is no win.
In the meantime, the rest of us continue to suffer the financial sting whenever we are required to refill our gas tanks. This as the government enjoys their tax share of our gasoline dollar at double the rate of the profit oil companies actually make on that same amount. So, as the real solution escapes the learned members of Congress, as they salivate over the potential for even greater revenue from an industry they already over-tax and over-regulate, the only ones being gouged are the consumers.
Don’t you just love being a captive of bureaucratic ineptitude?