Friday, June 13, 2008
Blame Democrats for high gas prices
From the RoundTable blog
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Alfred C. Anderson
Anderson, of Vinton, is the 6th district Republican chairman.
I take exception to your editorial, "Gasbag politicking," (May 27). Congressman Goodlatte is right and you are wrong.
Two years ago then Minority Leader Nancy Pelost boldly proclaimed, "Democrats have a common-sense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices." Since she became speaker of the House, gas prices have skyrocketed from about $2.33 per gallon to $3.85 as I write this. This is a $1.52 per gallon Pelosi premium increase American families are forced to pay at the pump.
She and the Democrats who now control the House have not only failed to offer the meaningful solutions they promised, but they have actually put forward policies that have the opposite effect. These include placing another 55 cents onto the price of gasoline though a higher gas tax to raising taxes on oil companies which would result in fewer jobs and still higher prices at the pump.
Middle class families need real relief, not more broken promises from the Democrats. Republicans have offered solutions to reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy and invest in all forms of energy to create jobs here at home and grow our economy.
Pelosi has said, "certainly more supply lowers the price," but has opposed increasing the supply of American-made energy at every opportunity.
She and the Democrats continue to speak ill about gas prices yet do ill about energy supplies. They are unwilling to increase American energy supplies and have blocked proposal after proposal aimed at allowing more energy supplies to be extracted here at home, yet assert that OPEC should be sued for not increasing its exports. The logic escapes me.
Republicans have worked to increase energy availability by allowing energy exploration in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Surveys show up to a million barrels a day can be produced. Republicans have proposed expanding energy exploration and extraction on the Outer Continental Shelf. Reports indicate expansion could yield 86 billion barrels. Democrats have opposed both.
Petroleum can be extracted from rocks (shale) and sands, which are abundant throughout our country. Then there is America's voluminous coal resources which could create coal to liquid production (coal gasification). The United States has been described as the Saudi Arabia of not only oil shale, but coal.
Gasoline does not come from the ground; it comes from the refining process. Republicans have consistently proposed making it easier for the private sector to expand capacity at existing petroleum refineries. Democrats have consistently blocked all efforts to make it easier to expand production. In fact they have done everything to choke the supply.
Besides ongoing efforts to prohibit the expansion of domestic supplies of petroleum and coal-based fuels, the Democrats proposed and passed though the House a bill to increase taxes on the domestic manufacturing of petroleum. The increasing of taxes on American companies will not increase production, lower pricing or the global competitiveness of the American companies.
Republicans have repeatedly demanded action to prevent energy shortages, but Democrats continue with their no new energy agenda which will put your readers in danger of real reduction in their standard of living.
Maybe that is what Pelosi and her Democrats want to do, reorder our lives and control our way of life.
