To be frank, I’m more than a bit tired of the hysteria surrounding oil prices. I’m especially tired of the populist morons (read Bill O’Reilly, et al) that claim it can be ‘fixed’ with just the right policy solution.
I don’t have anything substantive to add to the fisking of “windfall profits,” profiteering, price gouging or the other nonsensical arguments against success. I wish that the press would spend some more time talking about how difficult (read – impossible) it is to build a new refinery. Or maybe how Congress’s past attempts at meddling with gasoline mixtures (mandatory ethanol, lower sulfur output, etc) have contributed to the high prices. The mainstream media doesn’t even acknowledge that these past actions have contributed to the current state of things. It’s almost like the past doesn’t exist at all.
However, my TRUE question is where are all the environmentalists at? Shouldn’t they be begging Congress to sit on their hands for the “good of the environment?” If high prices reduce consumption shouldn’t they be clamoring for more of the same? Their silence seems to confirm my suspicions that they don’t actually care about the environment – they just hate Big Business and the success that it implies.
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