Tired of High Gas Prices? Blame Bush!

I’m serious. Blame the President.

FOX News reports that Congress has begun investigating the possibility of price gouging on the part of oil companies. Congress wants to know what caused this summer’s high gas prices (hmm, could be because two hurricanes hit us right where we keep most of our refineries). Oil executives say it is simple supply and demand.

Even before this summer, oil supplies were critically low, and they weren’t getting any better. Add to that increased demand, and natural disasters shutting down the major American refineries, and you have a perfect storm of high prices. Why has demand increased? Because the American economy has been expanding, thanks to the Bush tax cuts. So give Bush some of the blame.

Unfortunately, oil supplies have not been able to keep up with demand. For that, you can blame decades of government regulations piling on top of each other to create what can only be called an inharmonious mess (and since Bush has done nothing to solve that problem, you can give him some of the blame there, too). Oil execs testifying to Congress pointed to “boutique” fuels as an example. Every summer, the oil industry must produce unique blends of gasoline for certain regions because of regulations. Gas that is sold in one region cannot be sold in another. This causes our already limited refining capacity to become less efficient.

And what are Congress’ proposed solutions to the supply problem? More regulation, repeal tax incentives designed to encourage supply development, and a federal anti-gouging law. Wow! They really are as dumb as they look in Washington! Regulations and high taxes caused the problem in the first place. The average American motorist pays 22 cents per gallon in state and federal gas taxes. In some states, the combined tax is as high as 33 cents (source: Wikipedia) And that doesn’t count the taxes paid by the suppliers, refiners, shippers, and retailers in the chain. Those costs are passed on to the consumer, too. But, does Congress ever consider repealing any of these taxes in an effort to relieve the pinch of high prices? No.

As for the claim of price-gouging, I have already spoken on that.

We need a much better energy policy in this country. We need fewer regulations, lower taxes, and fewer restrictions on development and exploration. Did we get any of this in the recent energy bill passed by Congress (and signed by Bush, even though it did not include drilling in ANWR, a chief proposal in both of his campaigns)? No. What we did get was more Daylight Savings Time. Which really only means kids will be walking to school in the dark (fitting, since the American educational system is designed to keep students in the dark).

–J.E. Heath
per-fidem.org

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