Enabling OPEC

Via Gateway Pundit, a Qatari minister tries to use logic and common sense on the Democratic Party of the United States: "The Congress should look to increase exploration inside the United States." This lesson on supply and demand does not take hold.

Powerline adds: "OPEC is a cartel whose members agree to limit production to keep gas prices artificially high. They think this is in their economic interest. I understand their motives, but why would Democrats in the U.S. government want to enable OPEC's fleecing of the American consumer by joining in the effort to limit production?"

With gas over the tipping point of $4/gallon, the Democrats in Congress seem intent on instituting do-nothing policies that only exacerbate the energy problem: suing OPEC, a "windfall profits" tax on domestic oil companies, ethanol subsidies (but not from Brazilian sugarcane!) that drive up food costs, and so on. Yet I'm convinced that they would also block even a new survey of potential reserves in Alaska for fear of upsetting the caribou.

Gas prices are a top-to-bottom drag on the economy but the Democrats are still talking about putting solar panels on the White House. John Maynard Keynes famously quipped: "When the facts change, I change my mind - what do you do, sir?" Gas could be heading towards $6/gallon yet we're still outsourcing our energy and national security. It's time for policies that put oil revenues into American banks instead of Saudi emirates and Venezuelan social experiments.

More - Whoops, forgot about the "use it or lose it" silliness.