Quote:
- Put a cop - a regulatory agency - on the beat in the energy markets to ensure these markets are free from excessive speculation and manipulation;
- Stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until prices are lower;
- Develop alternatives to fossil fuels to lessen our dependence on oil;
- Impose a windfall profits tax on oil companies that have profited from the massive price increases.
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Well, he's half right. I will agree that the federal government should keep the playing field level in financial markets.
I also agree that it is dumb to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve when prices are high--unless of course you expect supply disruptions and/or higher prices.
But then he veers off course.
There is no alternative to petroleum. If there was, we would be using that instead. Everything else is more expensive to produce and/or provides less energy. We are now seeing what ethanol means to the marketplace in the form of higher food prices.
And the windfall tax thing is nothing more than political posturing. He thinks we should "punish" the oil companies for making too much money. What he will do is punish end consumers as these new taxes get passed on. My blood boils when I here this ignorant populist crap dressed up as a "solution".