The high cost of Democrat energy policy

Gerald Sieb at the Wall Street Journal looks at the wealth transfer and the opportunity cost to the US of the Democrats refusal to drill domestic oil and gas. Of course he does not mention the Democrats, but the effects of their policies are clear.

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To simplify the predicament, high energy prices hurt Americans in three ways. Only the first and most obvious one, the effect of high gas prices on voters' economic health, gets much attention.

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At the same time, oil producers are joining other foreigners in buying the U.S. Treasury bonds that finance the federal government's budget deficit. Between 2004 and 2007, the report notes, foreigners bought 80% of all newly issued Treasury bills.

The outflow of petrodollars also translates into loss of financial independence on another front. Oil-producing countries are accumulating piles of excess cash that they can use -- and are using -- to buy pieces of Western companies.

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Which leads to the third concern: that some of these mountains of petrodollars will in turn be used to advance anti-American political agendas. The McKinsey report summarizes the problem dryly but succinctly: "The rise of a broader range of countries with sovereign wealth funds heightens concerns about the potential noneconomic motives and political ramifications of their investments."

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Democrats seem to think we can get independence by not drilling for oil, but by drilling for conservation. It is clearly not working because the other countries are creating new demand that is keeping the price up.

Their energy plan has been a complete and utter disaster for this country and they should be paying a bigger political price for being that wrong on a matter of national security. But, just like their flawed national security policy ont he war, so far they ahve dodged responsibility for being wrong.