Democrats and gasoline prices

Frank Lautenberg donned his jester costume on Saturday and delivered the Democrats' weekly radio address.

The New Jersey senator blamed the president and congressional Republicans for high gasoline prices.

"We know there's little hope that President Bush will suddenly wake up and see the light," said Sen. Lautenberg. "But unfortunately, his Republican allies in Congress continue to stand by his side, with the oil and energy companies for the status quo and against the American people."

Queue the laugh track here.

Let's see, now. Where to begin?

The energy policy embraced by Sen. Lautenberg and his economically illiterate colleagues amounts to trying to phase out inexpensive fossil fuel in an effort to push the nation toward "greener" power sources such as wind, solar and geothermal. These are sources that for the foreseeable future simply cannot meet this nation's energy needs.

To march us in their preferred direction and curry favor with radical environmentalists, Democrats have for years killed any new effort to develop our own domestic oil resources or to build green-friendly nuclear power plants. This nation has not built a new oil refinery in 25 years.

Now they seek to block the construction of virtually every new coal-fired power plant in the country,

What might be the consequences of these policies in terms of consumers prices for gasoline or electricity?

In the meantime, Democrats propose huge new taxes on the oil companies, a move that will only jack gasoline prices even higher. They also embrace a big government regulatory approach to gasoline grades and distribution that inevitably drives up prices.

Sen. Lautenberg and other left wingers love to grandstand about Big Oil in order to score political points with the groundlings. But when they adamantly oppose any new refineries and the development of our own domestic sources, they bear a large share of the blame for high gasoline prices.

If you're an evil oil company executive rubbing his hands in glee over $4 a gallon gasoline, you know you could do a lot worse than having Democrats run the show in Washington.