Washington Examiner Editorial:
It's conventional wisdom in liberal Democratic precincts that gas prices in America are going up because of revolutionary uprisings throughout the Middle East. That's a convenient myth that obscures the truth about why Americans are and will be paying more at the pump and in their utility bills in the months ahead -- energy prices are going up because President Obama thinks that's a good thing. He was absolutely candid on this point during a discussion with the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle during the 2008 presidential campaign. Not only would "utility rates necessarily skyrocket," Obama said paying more for energy would be a good thing because "if you can't persuade the American people that yes, there is going to be some increase in electricity rates on the front end, but that over the long term, because of combinations of more efficient energy usage, changing lightbulbs, and more efficient appliance, but also technology improving how we can produce clean energy, the economy would benefit. ... If we can't make that argument persuasively enough, you -- you, uh, can be Lyndon Johnson, you can be the master of Washington. You're not going to get that done."
But not even "Landslide Lyndon" could make economic reality go away. Obama wants Americans to pay more for energy now both to make more expensive alternative energy sources acceptable and to help finance their development. But there are two fatal flaws in Obama's strategy. First, the federal government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars since the Carter administration trying to encourage the development of alternative energy sources. And for just as long, the costs of energy produced from fossil fuels like oil, natural gas and coal, has declined, even as its production has become more efficient and environmentally friendly.
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We have become more efficient at using carbon based energy and it still out classes all the alternatives that we have wasted billions of dollars on. We need to stop strangling domestic production of energy in the Gulf of Mexico and on Federal owned lands in the West and Alaska. We need to stop wasting money on ethanol subsidies. Let the farmers produce food which is in short supply around the world. They will make products for which there is an eager market and which will not need a subsidy.
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