Public moving away from Democrats on energy

While the Democrats are up to their failed old tricks of trying to pass an Energy Bill that will slap a Windfall Profits Tax on oil companies and increase surveillance of price gouging, polls show that the American public is finally discerning what the real solution is to high gasoline prices.

A recent Gallup Poll shows that the percentage of Americans blaming the oil companies for high gasoline prices has dropped from 34% to 20% in the last year. At the same time, support for more drilling for oil in U.S. coastal and wilderness areas has increased from 41% to 57%.

While Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress continue to lambaste oil companies and Republicans for high gasoline prices, the public is finally ready to allow real solutions to occur, rather than pander to radical environmentalists who have prevented drilling, nuclear power plant construction and new oil refineries that will really make a difference.

This could be a great opportunity for Republicans to champion the solutions that have suddenly become politically popular, except that their likely presidential candidate, John McCain, is in bed with the Democrats on the energy issues. He opposes ANWAR drilling and most coastal drilling--as well as favoring the Cap and Trade plan defeated in the Senate last week, that would produce less fuel and less growth.

Mark Perry at the Carpe Diem blog site says the Bakken Fields beneath North Dakota, Montana and Canada hold an estimated 400 billion barrels of oil, while Saudi Arabia's biggest field has only 55 billion barrels. There is also 279 billion barrels available on lands under federal management, but more than half of this total is off limits due to environmental regulations. There is another 86 billion barrels available offshore, but restricted by environmental regs. ANWAR contains 10.4 billion barrels.

The U.S. also has liquefied natural gas, oil shale and various coal-to-liquid carbon-capture and sequestration technologies--but all would be priced out of the market by the Cap and Trade plan. Perry points out that the U.S. is the Saudi Arabia of coal, but can't produce due to environmental regulations, and could be the Saudi Arabia of oil, if our oil companies were free to drill.

Finally, in the face of $4-$5 gasoline prices, the American public is ready to embrace real solutions, but both parties are about to nominate candidates who are stuck in political pandering and refusing to take the lead. This is understandable in a far-out liberal like Obama--but inexcuseable in a Republican like John McCain. He has a winning stance available on gas prices, but is buried in his vaunted "unpredictable mode," and can't take it. What a blown opportunity!