The government ought to do something!

As gas prices hit $4 in some places the cry has gone up, from the socialists among us, “The government ought to do something about this!!” The Lib socialists’ solution is for the government to step in and fix gas prices at an unrealistically low price. “That’ll solve everything!” huff the Libs. Besides there is absolutely no reason for Bush’s greedy oil buddies to be making all of that money – right?

Government price fixing never works and is invariably counter productive. Artificially low prices in one area only causes the supply to dry up in that area creating shortages and eventually even higher prices as the supply and demand curve gets further and further out of whack. Look at what price fixing did for California - rolling blackouts and eventually even higher prices. Look what rent control schemes have done in NY, affordable housing is not available. In addition to the price fixing schemes, while jetting from one environmental event to another on private jets that use more fuel create and more pollution in an hour than the average 24 MPG SUV does in a year, Libs call for everything from you walking the 25 miles to work each day to getting your Jimmy Carter cardigan sweater out for winter – anything but getting more oil.

Well, I’ll surprise you all and agree with the Libs that government ought to do something.

• The first thing the government ought to do is lift the idiotic environmental restraints on oil production off shore and in ANWR. The oil is there. We ought to be doing something to go get it.
  
• Next, the government ought to clear the idiotic environmental restrictions on and create incentives for the oil companies to build more refining capability. It has been 25 years since an oil refinery has been built in the United States. If Saudi sold us all the oil we wanted at $25 a barrel, we could not refine any more of it than we are today. This fact in and of itself keeps supply unnecessarily low and prices unnecessarily high. (Note: A legitimate reason for high gas prices is that a mid sized refinery – one that produces 100,000 barrels per day – will cost in excess of $500 million to build. Double that cost for all of the enviro red tape that will have to be overcome.)
  
• The government ought to review the requirement for the 17 specific blends of gas being used throughout the United States. Each of these blends causes a reduction in refinery capacity and distribution problems which contribute to higher prices.
  
• The government ought to clear the red tape and provide incentives for the production of clean environmentally friendly nuclear power. The French have built 25 nuclear power plants since we finished our last one in the US. If the French, working 30 hour weeks, can manage it, well just about anybody ought to be able to manage it.

So yeah, the government ought to do something. The government ought to be getting out of the way of American entrepreneurs and let them solve the problem. Any attempt by the blowhards in Washington to solve the problem is sure to only exacerbate it.