Politics win over doing the right thing

Yesterday the President decided he better step into this whole energy prices soaring thing and try to shore up some approval points for the upcoming midterms, I don't know about you but if I was a congressional candidate in a close race I wouldn't want somebody with a 33% approval rating coming through town to try to get the undecideds. I digress . .

So the President has a plan, my comments are in italic;

Bush's plan

President Bush's proposals probably won't have a major immediate impact on gasoline prices.

The proposals include:

Cease filling up the nation's emergency oil reserve this summer. That would provide a little more oil to the market, which could lower crude prices slightly. - Not a bad idea considering we're only 40 million barrels short of the full 727 million, the pay back is from when the strategic reserve was used after the hurricanes last year, wait doesn't that season start soon?

Investigate whether there is price manipulation or gouging. That could spur some companies to lower prices, but oil companies have been investigated dozens of times and never charged. - Might wanna get Cheney and his energy commission in on this one, they might know something.

Open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling. The Senate has blocked that several times. Even if passed, oil likely would not flow for a decade. - This is the crux of it, if people perceive a problem they'll be happy to give up ANWAR for an extra million barrels of oil a day, in a decade. Of course the Bush administration is blaming Clinton for this.

Waive fuel requirements that create a patchwork of gasoline blends throughout the United States. That could reduce prices and possibly prevent a price spike to a region unable to obtain its own blend of fuel after a pipeline rupture or refinery fire. - I appreciate that in order to save ten cents a gallon we'll all be breathing in more toxic fumes and run up further health care costs because of it, ok I can't prove that but you get the gist.

Remove $2 billion in tax incentives to oil companies to purchase equipment or drill in deepwater areas. That might save taxpayers money but it wouldn't lower gasoline prices. - hold on a minute, did the Energy Task Force approve this?

OK so to prove I'm not one of those people who just bitches and has no original ideas to bring to the table how about this;

1. Take the bus or car pool to work one day a week.
2. Write to your elected officials asking them to support increased fuel efficiency standards for vehicles, power plants, etc.
3. Get your house energy efficient to save you money, that's right, you can save money and save the world.

OK enough ranting on that subject.

So my camera phone sucks for anything farther away then like 5 feet. I rant about that now because I really wanted to post a picture of the old timey bike I saw outside Starbucks this morning. Oh well, it's the second time I've seen it in the neighborhood, I'm sure you'll see a picture of it yet.