Members of Congress have had two bad ideas this spring when it comes to holding down gasoline prices.
Fortunately, it appears a gas-tax holiday hasn’t gained traction in Washington. It would mean billions of dollars less for needed road-construction projects.
Now comes the latest misguided plan from elected officials who want to “do something” about the cost of fuel for American motorists.
Congress has voted to halt depositing 70,000 barrels of oil a day into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. President Bush reportedly will sign the bill, even though aides acknowledge it’s an insignificant measure.
Just look at the statistics.
Americans use more than 20 million barrels of oil each day. Simply freeing up three-tenths of 1 percent of that oil won’t bolster supplies enough to affect prices much.
Give Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Texas credit for this critique: “If all the members of the House would go out onto the steps and clap our hands three times and say, ‘Down prices, down prices,’ that would have as much impact as passing this bill.”
At least lawmakers have had the good sense — so far — to not call for selling some of the reserve’s petroleum in an attempt to bring down prices.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve should be a source of fuel for Americans in times of national emergency. A terrorist attack disrupting supplies would qualify.
But the recent surge in gasoline prices, while causing financial pain for many motorists, does not constitute such a national crisis.
Denise Tiller, Midwest Voices 2008
Politicians need to stop the PR solutions to the energy crisis and develop some effective strategies. We'll never wean ourselves off cars, but we need to be smarter about the number of miles we drive and the cars we buy. We also need to make our home more energy efficient and develop alternative, clean sources of energy.
We aren't going to be able to compete with India and China for oil in the long term.
Denise Tiller, Midwest Voices, 2008