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Democrats: Dumb On Gas Prices
I knew it wouldn't be too long before the Democrats started to try and politicize the gas prices.
Idiots like Charles Schumer (i hate that this clod sits on the Judiciary Committee) are signing off on resolutions telling President Bush to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Preserve in order to bring gas prices down.
This is a poor idea for a number of reasons:
1. OPEC is most likely going to raise their output above what they are producing today. If the administration releases 60 million barrels of oil from the SPP, OPEC will have no incentive to do so.
2. Even if reserves were released, it would do nothing to gas prices in the short term. It would take months for that oil to get to the refineries for it to have any effect on prices. This is where guys like Schumer have no clue on issues like the free market.
3. Our current refineries are operating at near capacity. They simply cannot produce more. This is in part due to the increased demand in China and other countries in the far east. They have simply claimed all the unused capacity.
4. Environmental regulations don't help, especially when it comes to building new refineries or maintaining older ones.
The best thing to do is just deal with it for now. In the scheme of things, gasoline is still one of the cheapest things we spend money on in our households. High prices will get countries to increase supply even more. President Bush has said that the SPP shouldn't be used to manipulate gas prices. He's right. Hopefully, this will be a time when he doesn't cave to BS political posturing on the part of Democrats.