ENOUGH! A Common Sense Energy Policy and Affordable Gas

For DECADES we've been promised by politicians that they would "fix" the energy problems our nation has. For decades they have failed to do so. They are too busy enjoying the powers of their offices, while spending the massive taxes they collect on the gas we buy. All the while, they blame "big oil," and cripple our ability to find new domestic sources of fuel and energy.
There's no doubt that "big oil" likes the BIG profits they are getting due to the low supply/high demand market for gasoline these days. Yeah, it's called capitalism. We only consider their profits "obscene" because the media and politicians WANT us to. In fact, a fact that is often conveniently left out, Big Oil has relatively LOW profit margins, and relatively HIGH investments in research and development. They only take in about HALF the profits on a gallon of gas vs. the amount of TAXES the government takes in revenue!

So, here's a modest proposal to improve oil prices that would help the economy immensely and in short order.It's TIME for a sensible, straightforward plan to REALLY fix our energy challenges and return our gas to affordable levels.

(1) Congress must FIRST REPEAL the Federal gas tax. That would be 18-20 cents a gallon savings IMMEDIATELY.

(2) Congress should drop ALL restrictions on drilling for oil in Alaska and off the coast of the US, and should allow further exploration in all areas, regions, states and territories to discover more Crude.

(3) Congress should authorize doubling the capacity of our oil refineries in the next decade -- including authorizing subsidies for companies to build them, and shield laws to keep environmentalist wackos from suing to stop them.

(4) Congress should suspend indefinitely EPA regulations demanding dozens of different gasoline formulations due to alleged levels of "pollution" in given cities and regions of the US.

(5) Congress should authorize the construction of at least 25 NEW Nuclear power plants in the next decade -- if FRANCE can do it, WE can do it BETTER.

(6) Congress should authorize the use of coal -- or to covert coal to oil -- for other energy supplies.

IF these changes were implemented, within ONE YEAR gas prices would likely be down to between $1.25-$1.50 a gallon. HOW? Simple. The speculators that are bidding up the price of oil because they EXPECT limited availability would reverse course. The framework upon which they speculate would be jerked out from under them. ALSO, suppliers -- like OPEC -- would realize that we were serious, so they would vastly increase production to create a "glut" of oil to keep us DEPENDENT on them (somewhat akin to how a pusher keeps an addict hooked on heroin or coke). IF we were RESOLUTE, we could persevere and break our habit -- but NO ONE is resolute in Washington about ANYTHING -- except maintaining their own power.

And environmentalists and Liberals need not scream their opposition to this proposal. Your guys are in power. Your policies are working. Common sense is a lost trait. These ideas will never be implemented -- at least until we're using candles and riding horses again...