Liberal Talk Radio

I hate it when politicians grandstand on gas prices. I hate watching Chuck Schumer bloviate about price controls and “windfall profits taxes.” I especially hate watching the President and Sen. Frist call for hearings into price fixing.

They’re all full of it.

I will say that I thought Schumer had a good idea a little while back when he suggested that (gasp!) the oil companies should pay the government the money they owe us for leasing federal lands to drill on. With ExxonMobil’s CEO raking in a $400M payday, the least they can do is NOT skip out on the check. Fuckers.

But the problem with the Democrats grandstanding and bloviating about gas prices (though it may be an effective short-term electoral wedge) is that the GOP just counters with a laundry list of ways to get more cheap oil: Drilling in ANWR, delaying the switch to the summer gasoline blend, and, today, the kicker: allowing refineries to skip the environmental regs to get more gas to market!

All of these things, of course, are terrible from an environmentalist point of view.

Reminds us that, as politically difficult as it may be, a gas (or carbon) tax is the only way to go. Because we don’t know what we want, we just know what we don’t want: fossil fuels. So tax ‘em and let the market adjust itself.

Update: What David Roberts said.