A stark choice on gas prices

The Washington DC Examiner, Editorial, June 20, 2008
WASHINGTON - Rep. Maurice Hinchey clearly knows little about how supply and demand works in free markets, but the New York Democrat gets high marks for candor on the basic assumption underlying his party’s approach to high gas prices: “We [the government] should own the refineries. Then we can control how much gets out into the market.” Hinchey’s comment should be viewed in the broader context of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s second-guessing of oil industry decisions about where to drill, and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s preference for a “more gradual” pace for spiraling gas prices. The Democrats’ fundamental policy is this: Washington politicians and bureaucrats should have the power to ration energy, set energy prices and regulate how energy is used … everywhere. It is a prescription for a vast new government intrusion into everyday American life.

Note the progression in the Democrats’ energy arguments. Step one has been evident since the dark days when Jimmy Carter donned a sweater and appealed to the nation to accept a future of energy scarcity, even as he and the Democratic Congress imposed a windfall profits tax that drove oil production down and gas prices up. They also created a stifling blanket of red tape and environmental litigation that has since been steadily made thicker still. That made it far more expensive to search for and produce oil, and effectively put off-limits more than 90 percent of federal lands and offshore areas thought to hold billions of barrels of new oil reserves and trillions of feet of natural gas.

Step two came into focus more recently as public disgust with $4 a gallon gas has mounted. Its centerpiece was the Democrats’ attempt to revive the windfall profits tax while chanting “we can’t drill our way out of this crisis.” The reality, of course, is Democrats have spent the last 30 years making it as hard as possible to drill for new oil and gas reserves where they are most likely to be found.

Step three is coming into focus because China, India and other rapidly expanding economies ignited the sudden explosion of gas prices in 2007 and 2008 instead of the “more gradual” price increases Democrats hoped to get by steadily restricting energy supplies over the years and forcing people into smaller cars, mass transit and out of the suburbs. So nobody should be surprised that step three is nationalization. More power for government is always the next solution offered by those who put their faith in Washington politicians and bureaucrats to solve problems their policies create. The stark choice now is whether voters will heed those telling them they can’t be trusted with their own energy decisions.

Examiner