Crude Scapegoats
The Bear on May 22 2008 at 8:29 am | Filed under: Energy Policy
Energy: It’s now a cliche: fat-cat oilmen control our destiny by holding back supplies, letting prices soar, then pocketing the profits. But if any fat cats are to blame for the energy crisis, it’s those on Capitol Hill.
Funny how so few, especially our friends in the mainstream media, seem to notice Congress is the culprit. When it’s not stopping the development of the energy resources we need, it’s busy demonizing the very entities — such as the oil companies — that can go get them.
We raise this issue because, once again, Congress has dragged oil company chiefs to Washington for Star Chamber hearings where the innocent are presumed guilty before they even take a seat.
Democrats like Sens. Patrick Leahy, Herb Kohl and Dick Durbin are very skilled at the blame game. On Wednesday, they called on oil bosses to account for high oil prices and ripped them for their profits and pay packages. Everything, in other words, but propose real solutions to our problems.
“Do market forces alone explain the skyrocketing price of oil and gas?” Kohl wondered. We’ll take that one: No, senator, market forces alone don’t explain it; congressional incompetence does.
Of the “solutions” Congress has pushed — including limits on CO2 output, windfall profit taxes, restrictions on drilling on public lands and, most recently and absurdly, suing OPEC — all lead to less oil and higher prices.
We agree our economy could do more to save energy. And with oil prices over $130 a barrel, it will. (Indeed, U.S. oil use this year is down 2.2% from 2006.) That said, the main solution should be to drill for more oil and gas on our own territory. Billions of barrels and trillions of cubic feet await.
“When energy prices are high, the urge to point fingers at oil companies is strong,” said J. Stephen Simon, senior vice president of Exxon Mobil Corp. “But undercutting the ability of American companies like Exxon Mobil to compete in a huge global marketplace only makes it harder for Americans to secure the energy they need at competitive prices.”
Bingo!
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