Gasoline and Government
April 27, 2006
Whoever it was that said that we usually get the government we deserve is proved right by the panic in Washington over $3-plus pump prices.
Gas prices rise, and suddenly everyone in Washington becomes a raging anti-capitalist. (Washington D.C., that is — the other Washington already has more than its fair share.) Outrage over the audacity of oil companies daring to make money is something you expect to hear from a hippie at a Left-wing anti-everything rally, not the leadership of the greatest capitalist nation on Earth. The shock comes upon hearing the same rhetoric coming from both sides of the aisle.
I’ve said it before, and survived, so I’ll say it again. The only way to reduce our country’s energy dependence is to price it until it hurts and we are forced to change out habits. The hurt will be borne by those least able to suffer it, but blame the Government, not the oil companies.
Yet another example of unwarranted government interference is the forced reliance on ethanol. The energy bill Congress passed last year should have simply ordered the use of oxygenated blends, and allowed the market to figure out which worked best in different areas. Instead, the ethanol lobbyists did their job well. Politicians promoted and protected ethanol use, while refusing to protect manufacturers of rival additive MTBE from lawsuits. (Both are carcinogens, but it would cost more to clean MTBE from water supplies in event of a spill.) The coastal states were forced to switch to ethanol, which is expensive to make and hard to ship, and works well only in the Midwest, where supply lines are short. It turned out that domestic ethanol manufacturers couldn’t keep up with the demand, so we have to use imported ethanol — and imported ethanol carries a 54-cent tariff on every gallon.
One almost gets the idea that our politicos don’t really care about the economic impact of their largesse. Here in the middle of corn country, most people think that subsidizing ethenol production is a good thing, which means that most people aren’t thinking at all, just responding to sound bites on the evening news.
How did I get in this biting, cynical, mood?
Dave, retired, acknowledged greedy capitalist.
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EXCELLENT ARTICLE!!! How true.
I guess that makes two of us. Thanks for the comment.