With Democrats in control of the US Senate, prospects darken for US energy policy. Early pronouncements indicate that the party has learned nothing about the subject.
The unenviable chore of carrying the Democrats' stale energy water falls to Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.). As chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Levin will investigate recent in creases in gasoline prices.
Policy can get no more tired or ineffective than this. The Federal Trade Commission only recently finished two such investigations, the most recent of many. Like all their predecessors, the investigations found no wrong-doing by oil companies.
More investigations
Of course, that didn't stop Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle of South Dakota, while still minority leader, from calling early in May for a bipartisan committee to investigate gasoline prices. And it didn't stop Levin from following through later in the month after Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont quit the Repub lican Party and gave control of the Senate to the Democrats.
"We hear various explanations as to why we have again suffered a dramatic increase in gas prices," Levin said when he announced the investigation. "But so far the explanations haven't been satisfactory."
What on earth does it take? Explanations have been everywhere. They are sufficient to anyone with sense who's willing to listen and learn.
In fact, the general media have performed better than in the past in explaining recent swings in gasoline prices. Sure, there have been lapses. Overall, though, the media have covered gasoline prices as the market and regulatory phenomena that they are and not as moral drama. Gasoline reformulation, capacity bottlenecks, and fuel substitution are not easy subjects to cover in the short, simple bursts essential to radio, television, and newspapers. The media deserve credit for at least trying to get the story right.
Doesn't Levin watch the news?
The government itself has done a good job of explaining the behavior of fuel prices. Officials of the Energy Information Administration publish regular reports on these subjects. They maintain an active, informative, and understandable web site. They testify before congressional committees.
Doesn't Levin avail himself of information generated at taxpayer expense?
With all this information so close at hand, Levin's unelaborated judgment about adequacy of the explanation raises a question: Does Levin really want an explanation?
"The oil companies need to explain why gas prices have increased so dramatically given that there has been no comparable increase in the per barrel cost of oil to them," he proclaimed in his announcement.
Suspicion confirmed. This isn't about learning why gasoline prices are high. It's about spewing outrage at oil companies for political gain. Levin is just following his party's traditional and discredited approach on energy.
All the self-important indignation that Levin and his Democratic colleagues muster for the television cameras while the investigation stretches on will do nothing for energy in the US. It will squander time and money and further damage the reputation of an industry whose products are essential to popular welfare. For wasting so much on shopworn demagoguery in the face of real energy problems needing real solutions, the Democrats deserve nothing but scorn.
No new ideas
Three things are obvious:
- The Bush administration energy plan, which proposed initiatives the country needs, is dead. Its unfortunate centerpiece was leasing of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain. Daschle quickly declared that, under him, the Senate will never lease ANWR. He won't stop there.
- Democrats have no new ideas on energy. To too many of them, energy policy means chanting about conservation and renewable energy and lying about oil companies. None of that addresses the problem, which is that the country doesn't have enough energy.
- If the nation is to assure itself of the energy it needs, it must finish deregulating the electric power industry, ease the unnecessary regulation of refiners, and allow vastly more resource development on federal land. These measures are not universally popular. But neither are rolling blackouts and $2/gal gasoline.
The administration's energy proposal at least tried to make the US realistically examine its choices. Jeffords sabotaged the effort. Now the Democrats are reclaiming power. The situation doesn't brim with promise. On energy, the Democrats don't solve problems. On energy, they act like know-nothing nags.
