Human Events | Jed Babbin | May. 30, 2008
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s petition to Congress demanding the removal of government obstacles to increasing our energy supplies is gathering momentum by the minute, while the Democrats’ do-nothing Congress wants to raise fuel prices.
Actually, labeling Congress a bunch of “do-nothings” is almost right, but not quite. They’re doing their best to create more obstacles to growing our energy supply. And while the price of energy is already unreasonably high, they’re working hard on a liberal agenda that will raise the prices consumers pay for gasoline, diesel fuel, natural gas and home heating oil.
With the summer upon us (and the November election fast approaching) the price of gasoline should be on the mind of every member who wants to keep his job after November. There is a conservative approach to the problem: relieve government burdens on the energy market. But Congress isn’t controlled by conservatives: the Democrats rule both houses of Congress and – even with gasoline prices reaching all-time highs almost daily — the Dems are doing their best to raise the burden on the voters.
As Speaker Gingrich told me in a Wednesday interview, “Every time I turn around I see Congress and bureaucracy making it harder to produce energy, increasing the price you and I are paying, reducing the amount that’s available, and then trying to find someone else to blame.”
That’s right: while many Americans are paying more than $4/gallon for gasoline (add another 75¢ for a gallon of diesel fuel), Congress is coming back on Monday to try to pass legislation such as the Warner-Lieberman “cap and trade” anti-global warming bill which — by itself, and without the costs added by other Democratic initiatives — would boost the price of a gallon of gas to levels paid in Europe. (Yesterday, the price of a gallon of gas in England was about $6.23.)
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