[illiac]

I sent an email to our elected officials from the state of Idaho. Didn’t even get the courtesy of a response.....

[Sacajaweau]

Geez...remind me not to write this motor mouth.

[tobyhill]

It never ceases to amaze me how a Washington politician can brag about their so-called accomplishments while gas prices climb higher and higher everyday.

[theDentist]

In short, she’s saying “Investigate, apply Windfall Taxes, but DON’T DRILL”

[econjack]

...the price of oil and gas can no longer be explained or predicted by normal market dynamics or their historic understanding of supply and demand fundamentals.

After I read this, I knew the rest of the letter was going to be pure BS. I wasn't disappointed.

[Paperdoll]

To Senator Maria Cantwell: Shut up and listen!

[jazusamo]

I contacted her office several weeks ago about Nancy Pelosi saying our military had nothing to do with the success in the last year in Iraq. I recieved a canned email regarding the Dems stance on Iraq over two weeks later that addressed not one thing I asked.

In WA we are saddled with two of the least intelligent senators in DC but Cantwell still has some dumbing down to do to reach Murray’s level.

[Grunthor]

Ok now I ain’t sayin’ that I understand the whole “speculators thing” but rather than being the toxic gas....aren’t they more like the canary in the mine?

[CPT Clay]

Will Rogers had it right. He said there should be Open Season on Congresscritter’s once a year.

[CPT Clay]

Will Rogers had it right. He said there should be Open Season on Congresscritter’s once a year.

[Ramius]

I cannot fathom the mental gymnastics required for somebody to believe that adding a tax on gas will make it cheaper.

Really... how can somebody say that with a straight face?

[4woodenboats]

Furthermore, the landmark 2007 Energy Bill included language I authored giving the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) new authority to prosecute and impose fines of up to $1 million per day on anyone who uses a manipulative or deceptive device or contrivance to distort the crude oil, gasoline, or petroleum distillate markets

So when shall we expect to see you in jail, Maria?

You state that Washington refines twice the fuel it needs, but have consistently blocked the expansion of refineries and the lengthening of docks so that we cannot accept larger tankers. You mindset was that "we don't need more oil tankers in our waters". Yes we do.

As the the "portal" state to Alaska, we should be greatly increasing our capacity, not taking measures to block it. We only have roughly 6 million people in this state. Refining for twice that many isn't much.

The state has often used the fictional calculation that "since the population has grown it is using more gas, but the state isn't receiving more taxes" to raise our taxes even further, and as a result we are one of the top taxed states in the country:

http://www.washingtongasprices.com/tax_info.aspx

In fact, our gas taxes just went up another 1.5 cents 2 days ago: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/News/2008/06/30_last-2005-gas-tax-phase.htm

That's a 14.5 cent increase since 2005. The oil companies make what, 10-12 cents?

We know who the crooks are Maria, and are looking forward to seeing this roundup of price manipulators begin with you.

[Gil4]

“...while Enron and other bad market actors were pillaging West Coast ratepayers...”

I thought they only pillaged their shareholders

“...the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge”

I’ve never been there, but from the photos I’ve seen, a few oil wells would be an improvement up there.

“would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030.”

Yeah, whatever. If we wait another 8 years, then they’ll tell us it won’t have a significant impact until 2038. (They’d probably be wrong about that, too.)