Its not everyday that one can say "George Bush gets it right," in fact its been a rare occurrence within the span of nearly a decade, but today one can say just that with regard to the president's energy challenge to Congress. Today, in this politically charged climate, the president called on Congress to take steps toward energy independence, thereby reducing skyrocketing energy costs.

The president's plan was four fold:

1. Open the Outer Continental Shelf to exploration and drilling
2. Open ANWR to exploration, as it was originally intended
3. Bring Oil Shale resources on to the market
4. Increase America's refining capacity

On all four counts the president is right, naturally these issues will only address short-term consumption needs, as our long term future lies in energy alternatives like hydrogen and various synthetic liquid fuels. But it is the short term that should concern us all, after all the problem of high energy costs threaten to completely destroy the US economy.

Naturally the American left came out in strong opposition to the president's proposals.

"another page from (an)... energy policy that was literally written by the oil industry — give away more public resources."
-Rep. Nancy Pelosi

"This is not something that's going to give consumers short-term relief and it is not a long-term solution to our problems with fossil fuels generally and oil in particular..."
-Sen. Barack Obama

"...we cannot drill our way out of this problem"
-Sen. Harry Reid

The fact is, the American left, with each passing day, appears more and more to have been invested in the ongoing immizeration of this country. When people like Barack Obama tell us that such measures won't have any impact on short term energy prices, it demonstrates the type of economic ignorance that only a weak minded smoker could exhibit. The fact is that roughly 40-50% of oil prices are a direct result of trading on the commodities market, which is essentially speculation about the long term pricing of energy resources. A strong commitment by the United States to reduce its dependence on foreign oil would have an immediate impact on oil prices. Need we forget that nearly a decade ago then president Clinton vetoed a similar measure to open ANWR to drilling, where would we be today if our esteemed former president had teh insight to serve as a steward for our energy security, rtaher than covering for one scandal after another?

Now we are to believe that the left has the best interest of the American people at heart? This is difficult to fathom when every move toward energy independence is met with opposition, what is the motivation? If not either to cripple the country economically for short term political gain?

Senator Reid claims that the oil companies control millions of acres in oil leases that are not being used to drill on and thus no further opening of such lands is warranted. This of course is nonsense when one considers the fact that the cost to drill in many of these areas would exceed the benefits. But then again from the standpoint of such demagogue politicians American industry should give away resources rather than make a profit in the first place. How else can one explain a new proposal by House Democrats to nationalize the nation's refineries and another Democratic plan to tax windfall profits. While the president's proposals would work towards reduced cost and energy independence the only proposals made by the left call for socialism, higher taxes and higher costs for the American consumer.

Both proposals will have an impact on energy, one works for us, the other works against us. How gullible are we as Americans that such a position is even defensible?

Links:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080618/ap_on_bi_ge/offshore_oil
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/PainAtThePump/story?id=5197676&page=1