The Real Energy Culprits

Dear House Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

I am told by my liberal Democratic friends that I should give you and your fellow Democrats a break and wait to see what you actually do on the critical matter of a national energy policy.

I am told that I have been too critical, too quick to lump you in with the Republicans who did little on the issue when they controlled Congress.

Indeed, some of my liberal Democratic buddies, visitors from Los Angeles and New York who were in town last week attending congressional festivities, eagerly directed my attention to an article in The Washington Post, written by staffer Steven Mufson, describing Democratic plans to strip billions of dollars of tax breaks from oil and gas companies, and divert the money to the research and development of alternative fuels.

On the surface, it seems a laudable proposal. But on closer examination, it is substantially less than meaningful, a strategy that amounts to little more than the old political ruse of blaming the other guy for the mess we created together.

In that regard, Madame Speaker, your party's energy politics are no different from those of the Republican majority you replaced.

The Democratic energy proposal being discussed exempts the American consumer from any responsibility for paying for energy conservation. It places the entire burden for our wanton consumption of oil and gas on the energy and automotive companies. It's just another version of "The devil made me do it," the obverse of the Republican complaint: "The devil won't let us do it."

The Republicans, of course, were referring to environmentalists who opposed new offshore oil drilling, or more drilling for oil in the wilds of Alaska. But the Republicans, like the Democrats, were excessively careful about not saying or doing anything that would make consumers pay higher taxes on gasoline, higher taxes on vehicle engine displacement and horsepower, higher parking charges for parking larger cars or fees for driving into urban centers during periods of peak congestion.

Logically, Madame Speaker, opposition to such levies is difficult to understand.

It is routine in a capitalist economy to control consumption by adjusting price. When there is an overabundance of something, consumers pay less for it. When there is a shortage, or when access to a commodity is fraught with the horrors and costs of military intervention in someone else's country to secure that commodity, shouldn't consumers be asked to pay more?

But both Democrats and Republicans run away from that question. Their fear is political, not logical.

Consider last week's congressional parties in Washington. The people invited to the most exclusive events often were those who helped to raise the most money, or who gave the largest sums of cash to the politicians feting them. In order to play, you had to pay.

Consumers play a lot in America when it comes to buying and doing many things, especially things involving cars and housing.

Consider, Madame Speaker, the matter of Corporate Average Fuel Economy, a Democrat-inspired notion to conserve fuel by forcing the car companies to meet federally imposed fuel economy standards. That rule has been on the books in the United States since 1975. We're the only country with a CAFE rule, a half-baked idea that has been half-successful.

Success: The actual fuel economy of nearly all vehicles sold in this country, vehicle category by category, has increased markedly since 1975. If you don't believe me, I'd be happy to accompany you to Detroit, Mississippi, Tennessee, Tokyo, Stuttgart, or anywhere else where cars are made for U.S. sales, and prove it to you. I'm willing to help arrange test drives for you or anyone on your staff for hands-on examination. Drive the new cars and trucks. Look at their actual mileage. Compare it with the fuel economy of similar cars and trucks on sale in America in 1975.

Dismal failure: For all of the progress made in actual vehicle fuel economy, America still burns more gasoline than any other developed country. Vehicle miles traveled have gone way up since 1975. Vehicle sizes have ballooned. Engine horsepower has skyrocketed.

The devilish car companies aren't making American consumers behave that way. Nor are the satanic oil companies your party is planning to penalize by stripping them of the tax breaks approved by Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

American consumers are doing it to themselves by themselves. The automotive and energy companies are just taking advantage of their evident greed, their seemingly inexhaustible demand for more of everything, and the biggest of everything at the cheapest available prices. There is nothing -- zilch, nada -- in the Democratic energy proposal to stop them from doing it, or at least to make them think twice about ordering the next unnecessarily large car or big truck, or big house located miles away from their places of employment.

Let's face it, Madame Speaker. Consumer greed, along with that inherent in business and politics as usual, is turning the American dream into an American energy nightmare. Poking the energy companies in the eye while patronizingly patting the consumer on the head will do nothing to change that.