Voter anger and the energy bill?

NY Times:

Congress saw it coming. Earlier this year, lawmakers warned of an impending energy crisis as they debated wide-ranging legislation to improve automotive efficiency, reward energy conservation and spur development of alternative power sources.

When the Senate passed an energy bill in June, crude oil was trading near $65 a barrel, the highest price in a quarter-century. When the House acted six weeks later on markedly different legislation, oil had passed $70.

Then nothing happened. Oil prices continued to climb while members of Congress bickered among themselves and sniped at the White House.

Lately, the price of crude oil has flirted with $100 — it settled Monday at $94.62, down $1.70 — and some analysts have projected $4-a-gallon gasoline by spring. Lawmakers may finally be preparing to act, most likely on a less ambitious set of energy-saving measures than those passed by either house this summer.

Leaders in both houses predicted action on a scaled-down package of energy measures before Congress breaks for Christmas, including some form of higher fuel-efficiency requirements for cars and trucks and incentives for alternative fuels.

To be sure, none of these would have an immediate effect on gasoline prices at the pump. The price of oil is determined in global markets, and Congress can do little about it. But with gasoline and heating oil prices near record levels, lawmakers going home for the holidays to face the electorate want to be able to say that they have taken steps that will eventually help.

“There’s a general perception outside of Washington that we haven’t done near what we could to move the country to a more acceptable energy mix,” said Senator Jeff Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico and chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “Congress has been slow to act, and the administration has been slow to act, and the public is way ahead of us on these issues.”

The frustration over a lack of a coherent national energy policy is bipartisan. The senior Republican on the Energy Committee, Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico, expressed similar dismay at Washington’s seeming paralysis.

“It’s incredible,” Mr. Domenici said. “You would expect us to be much more excited about these high prices, that we’d have a committee working day and night on the problem of oil dependence.” Instead, he said, the nation has done little since the oil crises of the 1970’s, with the exception of a hard-fought 2005 energy bill, which, he contends, has been applied less than effectively by the Bush administration.

John C. Felmy, chief economist at the American Petroleum Institute, also expressed unhappiness at the government’s inability to act on energy matters, though from a different perspective. “It’s very ironic the way this legislation is playing out,” he said. “Everyone agrees that we’re in a very tight energy situation, so why are they writing legislation to make it even tighter?”

...

The voters should be angered by the irrational energy bill being pushed by the Democrats that will only drive up energy prices further. While Brazil just reported finding a huge new oil field off its coast, the Democrats insist on preventing drilling off the coast of the US in several areas where similar fields may be found. They also insist in not drilling in parts of Alaska where huge fields have already been found. The fact is that Democrats have a hatred for energy production of almost all types whether it is oil or nuclear. They are primarily responsible for the current mess and their bill would only make it worse.