May 05, 2008
Idiotic energy policy
As Clinton and Obama spar over her support for a "gas tax holiday" -- she thinks it's good for consumers and he thinks it's just political pandering -- the Wall Street Journal points out that all of the candidates are economic retards when it comes to energy policy.
Mr. Obama is right to oppose the gas-tax gimmick, but his idea is even worse. Neither proposal addresses the problem of energy supply, especially the lack of domestic oil and gas thanks to decades of Congressional restrictions on U.S. production. Mr. Obama supports most of those "no drilling" rules, but that hasn't stopped him from denouncing high gas prices on the campaign trail. He is running TV ads in North Carolina that show him walking through a gas station and declaring that he'll slap a tax on the $40 billion in "excess profits" of Exxon Mobil.
[...]
You may also be wondering how a higher tax on energy will lower gas prices. Normally, when you tax something, you get less of it, but Mr. Obama seems to think he can repeal the laws of economics. We tried this windfall profits scheme in 1980. It backfired. The Congressional Research Service found in a 1990 analysis that the tax reduced domestic oil production by 3% to 6% and increased oil imports from OPEC by 8% to 16%. Mr. Obama nonetheless pledges to lessen our dependence on foreign oil, which he says "costs America $800 million a day." Someone should tell him that oil imports would soar if his tax plan becomes law. The biggest beneficiaries would be OPEC oil ministers.
Less is more, up is down, energy independence is more dependence on Middle East oil. The kind of brilliance one can only get from a presidential candidate.
Here's the nut 'graf, where the Journal knocks it out of the park.
This tiff over gas and oil taxes only highlights the intellectual policy confusion – or perhaps we should say cynicism – of our politicians. They want lower prices but don't want more production to increase supply. They want oil "independence" but they've declared off limits most of the big sources of domestic oil that could replace foreign imports. They want Americans to use less oil to reduce greenhouse gases but they protest higher oil prices that reduce demand. They want more oil company investment but they want to confiscate the profits from that investment. And these folks want to be President?
Our politicians are, to put a fine point on it, illiterates -- cretins -- when it comes to understanding something as basic as supply and demand. They're also seemingly interested in crippling our economy, rather than doing anything to increase our domestic energy supplies.
What a hopeless, hapless bunch.
Posted by Mike Lief at May 5, 2008 07:09 AM
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