Dems’ Energy Policy a Joke

The Democrats are bringing this up again.

With gasoline prices topping $4 a gallon, Senate Democrats want the government to grab some of the billions of dollars in profits being taken in by the major oil companies.

Senators were to vote Tuesday on whether to consider a windfall profits tax against the five largest U.S. oil companies and rescind $17 billion in tax breaks the companies expect to enjoy over the next decade.

Um.  Yeah.  So taxing the oil companies more will do what, exactly, to lower gas prices?  And what will the windfall of taxes to the federal government be spent on? 

But their total plan is even more of a joke.  It has three pieces.  Let’s look.

• Make oil and gas price gouging a federal crime, with stiff penalties of up to $5 million during a presidentially declared energy emergency.

Fine, but the oil companies have been investigated dozens of times for price gouging and no evidence of price gouging has ever been found.  This is meaningless.

• Authorize the Justice Department to bring charges of price fixing against countries that belong to the OPEC oil cartel.

Good luck with that.  Last I checked, one country can’t sue another country under its own legal code.  And if the Dems try, it would be setting the precedent for other countries to sue America for whatever they want under their legal code.  This is also meaningless, but more dangerous.

• Require traders to put up more collateral in the energy futures markets to curb speculation.

Have fun regulating this one.  The market speculation is a problem, but it will fix itself in time - just like the housing market, tech bubble, etc.  Government intervention in market fluctuations only serves to aggravate the problems. 

How about a real energy policy?  Something like more domestic drilling, more refineries, etc. 

Nah, that’s crazy talk.