Lifted from a comment here by Buddy:
Re oil here's two worthy reads: George Will's current WaPo column, The Gas Prices We Deserve, and an email from a gal in Louisiana, a friend of former Gov. Blanco & until recently an ardent Democrat.
and the body of the email, quoted:
For several decades, the Democratic Party has pursued policies designed to drive up the cost of petroleum, and therefore gas at the pump. Remarkably, the Democrats don't seem to have taken much of a political hit from the current spike in gas prices. Probably that's because most people don't realize how different the two parties' energy policies have been.
Congressman Roy Blunt put together these data to highlight the differences between House Republicans and House Democrats on energy policy:
ANWR Exploration
House Republicans: 91% Supported
House Democrats: 86% Opposed
Coal-to-Liquid
House Republicans: 97% Supported
House Democrats: 78% Opposed
Oil Shale Exploration
House Republicans: 90% Supported
House Democrats: 86% Opposed
Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Exploration
House Republicans: 81% Supported
House Democrats: 83% Opposed
Refinery Increased Capacity
House Republicans: 97% Supported
House Democrats: 96% Opposed
SUMMARY
91% of House Republicans have historically voted to increase the production of American-made oil and gas.
86% of House Democrats have historically voted against increasing the production of American-made oil and gas.
PAUL adds: It's useful to keep this sort of thing in mind when we hear (on something like a daily basis these days) that the Republicans have run out of ideas or that Republican ideas didn't work. The truth is that most major Republican ideas weren't tried because the Democrats blocked them. Increasing the domestic production of oil and gas (a move so obvious it barely meets the standard for being an idea) is hardly the only example. Social security reform and school choice also come quickly to mind. Republican-backed policies for increasing the number of Americans with health insurance were also blocked by Democrats. And so forth.
Because the bully pulpit wasn't effectively used, that news never really got out. The above numbers do not include the Dems' blocking of nuclear plants, which are going up all over the world including in Africa.
Abundant power is the sine qua non of modern civilization. Combine it with free markets and free people and you have a civilizational rocket. I sort-of understand the Dems blocking every Repub initiative out of pure partisan bile, but I do not know what their energy plan is. All they talk about are "clean alternatives," which is a joke, and they gobble up oil as fast as I do without any apparent regret.
I do know what my energy plan is: Lots of nuke power, plenty of clean coal technology, none of this dopey, subsidized and highly-polluting biofuel, and drilling for oil where we can: oil is great stuff and we are fortunate to have tons of it in the US.
This should be a major campaign issue, if McCain would wake up to it.
Related: Surber notes that gasoline accounts for only 45% of US oil use, in a piece titled What's the MPG of Your Soap?
Thanks, reader. Most of the above quoted is via Paul at Powerline.
