WurfWhile

I was planning to take a look at what Judy Baar Topinka was proposing to do with gas prices, but ArchPundit beat me to it. Bottomline, Judy’s proposal to reduce gas prices will cut around a quarter of a dollar per tank off what you pay. That won’t even pay for a cup of coffee for consumers who have watched prices double over the last couple years on gas - we’re talking about taking less than 1% off of a 100% increase. If you’re not impressed with Judy Baar Topinka’s proposal, you shouldn’t be.

Ultimately gas prices are a national issue, despite state attempts, like Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s, to address the high gas prices (and see here for Lisa’s regional efforts with natural gas). While there is plenty of long-term, bi-partisan blame to go around on the energy issue, it’s fair to note that like so many other things, the Bush Administration’s efforts have only made this worse, supported by a compliant Republican congress. Even at this late date, leadership in the U.S. House is a perfect picture of ignorance and continues on with a long-standing effort to ignore the energy problem and hope voters won’t notice it. As I argued almost 18 months ago in jest, the Administration has been pitching a “faith-based” energy policy and, like so many other policies from President Bush, it breaks faith with the true interests of the American people.

We need real energy and transportation alternatives for a true market-based solution. U.S. Taxpayers currently subsidize gas exploration by not charging royalties on U.S.-owned gas reserves to oil companies, who not surprisingly make record profits (see Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips), and give their executive officers massive payments (like the record executive pay Exxon Mobil’s CEO recently received). We also subsidize it through the tons of money we put into road construction, locally and nationally, while skimping on funding for rail transportation among other alternatives. The lack of fuel and transportation choices hurts people who travel for a living and businesses of all types that depend on transportation. It’s bad for people’s pocketbooks and the bottomline of many businesses. People need to start voting their interests - we’re experiencing what happens when they don’t.