Price of Gas

If only we could harness the hot air coming from Washington!!! Not an original thought, I know, but, those people are so full of crap I can't believe it. What is it with people looking for simple solutions to complex problems? I'm no huge fan of the oil companies... in fact, I once wrote a manuscript (in my semi-Marxist days) that proposed nationalizing the oil companies because oil is so important to our national security and economy. I no longer consider that a viable solution, given that the government would screw it up far more than the oil companies would.

How many of you have received the "boycott Exxon" e-mail?

The solution to the energy problem is clear. It begins with more domestic drilling. Naturally, using the most highly environmentally friendly, high tech methods available. Let's go to ANWR, drill offshore, etc. Secondly, we need to build refineries. Again, the most environmentally friendly... etc. etc. Let's also keep in mind that it is the Dems that have prevented that. Anything they say about oil prices or oil companies should all be filtered through: a huge part of the problem is THEIR fault! If Republicans can't use that to bludgeon the Dems in the mid-terms, they deserve to lose. (God help us if they do!)

Secondly, the government has to stop talking about throwing government money at alternative fuels. I don't know this for a fact, but my instincts tell me that people waiting for government funding are far less productive than people being creative and entrepreneurial. Plus, government money ALWAYS comes with strings. We don't need strings, we need outside of the box thinking. People who are hooked on thinking of hydrogen vehicles are going to be wrong (again, a gut reaction). I predict two things will happen... first, getting the hydrogen will turn out to be a high energy use process that may slightly diminish energy usage, but won't be the panacea that so many think it will. Also, the output is water. If nothing is coming out of the tailpipe but H2O, that sounds great and clean, but the number one greenhouse gas is water vapor. Not to mention the bummer of increased humidity in cities. It will be a matter of a short period of time before the environmentalists will be screaming bloody murder about the increase of water vapor in our environment. May sound stupid, but it's true.

If the government is going to help, what it needs to do is not throw money at the problem, but get the f_ck out of the way of the entrepreneurs and capitalists. Maybe give tax breaks for investment in entrepreneurial attempts to solve the problem, but don't give away money. They will not know what to support or what level of support to give a particular idea. I bet the answer is not even out there yet. Some dude in his garage, or sitting in a science or engineering class will come up with something that no one has even considered yet. The more the government spends, the more we'll be fixated on a particular solution, that will predictably not be the best solution. But, it'll get entrenched. Keep in mind, both hydrogen and electricity require some form of energy to create them. Even if it's the sun, or wind, it takes an array of some kind to harness it, and as we've seen with the Martha's Vinyard wind farm, people are loathe to have these arrays near them.

What we need to do is get the government to get out of the way as much as possible. Let the oil companies buy us some time via drilling and building refineries (make them have as small an environmental footprint as possible, but let them do it). In the mean time, support research and development, not by giving money away, but by incentivising MORE entrepreneurial efforts. Don't let the government bureaucracies pick and choose... let the markets and the people create the answer and the best one will surface.

We need to stop blaming oil companies for everything. These morons in Washington actually think that taking money from them will lower the prices. Since when did taxing a corporation make the corporation want to lower prices to further reduce their bottom line? The government's profit on a gallon of gas is higher than the oil companies' profit... why don't they cut that directly if they want to lower the price? Even that, though, is a pittance of the overall price of a gallon of gas. The rest of it is a result of our reliance on foreign oil. The vast majority of our gas price is in the costs to the oil companies, not their profits. Domestic supply and domestic refining reduces costs, and THAT is what is needed.

From a political point of view, this is a HUGE opportunity for the Republicans to demonstrate that it is Democrat policies that have caused and continue to cause the problems. How long have they been preventing new refineries from being built? How long have they been preventing domestic drilling? It far precedes the Bush administration, and it has continued through the first five years of Bush administration. People are feeling pain... the Republicans should let the people know who has really caused that pain. It wasn't the free market! It is interference by pandering by the Dems to environmental concerns, no matter how unfounded due to new technology. Hell, they could even give a hat tip to environmentalists having caused the oil companies to become environmentally aware and developing technology to be as environmentally freindly as possible while still getting the job done.

Will they be smart, or will they pander to the most base instincts of the uninformed and make themselves look as stupid and weak as the Democrats in the process?