[shrinkermd]

Escalating energy costs are a deliberate, planned effort. Drilling will be fought at all costs since increasing supply might diminish price.

The ideal is Europe where $9-10 gasoline has resulted in only a minority being able to afford a car.

[blackdog]

Funny, I haven't seen Pelosi te al abandoning their three blocks by limosene or taking US Air to travel back home to their districts.

Exactly who is making these changes besides those least able to afford to?

[Tarpon]

I doubt nanny Peloser is bothered by high prices, or fuel for her government plane. She will probably get a bill passed to buy the leftover books and give them to homeless people.

No car, no freedom, stay home, save the planet. Isn’t that how it goes.

China will make what you need with their enslaved labor, here is your monthly stipend — and oh yeah, your grey ballcap they made extras in Chaina.

[CoastWatcher]

Let the energy savings begin: We can start with closing down the LA Times and it’s mammoth carbon foot print. Consider all the gas used in delivering this recycle bin fodder across LA.

[xc1427]

“Inside every silver lining, there’s a dark cloud.”

[BigBobber]

Libs love high gas prices. It empties the highways and airports for the limo set.

[umgud]

There is no silver lining or positive change here. Only regression.

[Dogbert41]

FORCING CHANGE is what the dems are all about.

[SECURE AMERICA]

Castrating rapist would be painful but it would force positive chages.
Preventing Liberals from voting would be painful (for them) but would force positive changes.
See how easy one person positive change can be someone else’s worst nightmare?

[stevio]

I only read the excerpt, but I have to agree to a point. I heard an economist say the other day that, the best thing to reduce the cost of high oil prices is high oil prices. America's ingenuity is still the best in the world. At our bi-weekly bagel meeting, our top minds were discussing alternative energy supplies (we are not an energy company). Exciting times for entrepreneurial types.

[Neoliberalnot]

Yep, with high energy prices, only the Al Gore’s and the limo liberals can afford to waste all the resources they want while the rest of us must concede to living in 500 sq ft shacks and ride bicycles. At least, the liberal tyrants will be able to better control the little people.

[Hazwaste]

A real shortage of current energy supplies may happen someday.

But so far the only energy crises I’ve lived through have been entirely unnecessary and entirely caused by politicians, either domestic or foreign, who are only interested in controlling behavior.

[CMAC51]

...High energy prices also have an unforeseen bright side, forcing the nation to reduce its carbon emissions and delivering the encouraging message that, although we might not regain the freewheeling way of life that came with cheap gasoline, we have more ability to shape our fates than the caricature of the soft, spoiled American implied.

These are the words of a fool. At any time in history, the key to an increase in prosperity is the harnessing and utilization of energy. Whether it be the use of fire for heat and to provide light, extending the workday, to later forging steel for the plow, the hammer and the saw, steam for locomotives, gasoline for cars, trucks and tractors, or electricity for computers, harnessing energy to amplify the yield from brain and muscle power is the key to prosperity. A decline in energy utilization means a decline in prosperity, period. Demand for energy is down because the country is in a recession, recognized or not, and without a significant increase in available energy, the world is headed for a depression.

The soft spoiled American is vital to the world economy. Just as the thousand people working at the Waldorf Astoria depend on the decadent clientele for their jobs, the developing economies of the world depend on American consumption to drive the growth in their economies.

The future is straight forward. Increase the supply of available economic energy or watch the world fall into a global depression.

[FastCoyote]

There is no upside to cutting our energy consumption - energy is the ability to do positive work. There is advantage in being able to increase our efficiency. Paradoxically, what we want to end up with (more energy being used more usefully) may be accelerated by the false crisis we are now in. We will likely end up with more oil AND nuclear AND coal AND Solar!

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[MaineConservative]

Wal-Mart has announced that it will spend $400 million on local produce this year,

Wal-Mart, you cn help in another area! Instead of IMPORTING CHINESE MADE Bads, you can sell American Made GOODS!! It would help reduce energy costs of CHINESE JUNK from Chinese factories to Wal-Mart.

[wolf78]

Escalating energy costs are a deliberate, planned effort. Drilling will be fought at all costs since increasing supply might diminish price.

Oil is fungible commodity that is traded worldwide. The US only produces a third of the oil it consumes. Offshore drilling is taking place right now in Angola, Denmark etc.. Granted, restrictions have to be lifted in the US also for the market to more quickly find an equilibrium, but it is paranoid to believe that the US congress controls the world. High prices are a result of a.) fundamentals (i.e. economic growth in Asia, Russia etc.) and to a lesser degree speculation based on political instability (Iran etc.). Also high prices are the reason additional supplies become viable. US oil shale will not be able to compete with cheap (to produce) Saudi oil (i.e. on price for the foreseeable future).

At two thirds imports, higher gas work as a tariff on oil from fascist (Venezuela) or terrorist (Saudi Arabia) states. Therefore, the argument of raising gas taxes has its merits, if the money is used to abolish other taxes (-> 100% revenue neutral), e.g. property taxes etc.

[kellynla]

The Left doesn't give a damn about high gasoline prices...
why the clowns at the DNC didn't even pay retail for gas in Denver...
they went to the Denver city lot and pumped all they needed which was tax free!

As far as the Left is concerned, the oil companies should be owned by the government and we all should be riding government owned mass transit ala AMTRAK...

"Liberalims is just Communism sold by the drink."
P.J.O'Rourke

[jonrick46]

The idea that increased energy prices will escalate oil substitutes is a price we may not be able to afford. In fact it is a risky policy that could break our economic security. We are not in the price range where rubbing two sticks together is an economically viable energy alternative

If we have the economic incentives to have energy alternative, why are they not in the market place? The big answer is that one must make sure they work first. They tried crop derived oils for biodiesel. Do they work? They work but the method drives up the cost of food. Bad idea.

Next method: ethanol from corn. Does it work? Well, not as good as gasoline. And, it drives up the cost of food. Bad idea.

My answer: Algae oil. Does it work? It will work after more research is put into its development. We'll have to wait on that one.

More drilling: good answer!

[SteamShovel]

forcing the nation to reduce its carbon emissions

PROVING the hidden truth that reducing carbon emissions is bad for the economy, and that a poor economy is the goal of RATS and enviro-mentals.