I know I shouldn’t rise to the bait — it’s not as if Moveon.org is taken very seriously in Virginia. But, hey, it’s a slow news day, and stomping out economic illiteracy is always a worthy goal. It seems that the liberal political organization has been holding rallies around the country, including one in Staunton of all places, trying to draw the connection between Big Oil campaign contributions to Republicans and the high price of gasoline. As Chris Graham tells the story at the Augusta Free Press:
Since 1990, the oil industry has given more than $190 million to members of Congress – “and they’ve given three times as much to Republicans as they have given to Democrats,” [Moveon.org spokes person Nita] Chaudhary said.
“That money has guaranteed a policy that serves an industry over the public. Given that gas prices are off the charts, given the fact that scientists are continuing to warn us that global warming is at a tipping point, and given the fact that we’re in an increasingly uncomfortable situation in the Middle East, we can’t afford the Republican addiction to oil money anymore.”
The first question that comes to my mind is this: Do these people believe this twaddle, or do they peddle it knowing that it’s wrong but figuring that a gullible public will fall for it anyway?
Why are gas prices rising in the United States? It’s called supply and demand. Global demand for oil is increasing, driving up the price of petroleum. The high cost of developing new oil reserves, coupled with political instability in multiple oil-producing countries, has made it difficult to increase production enough to keep up with rising demand. The situation in the United States is aggravated by (a) environmental policies that restrict development of U.S. oil reserves, (b) environmental policies that restrict the development of new gasoline-refining capacity, and (c) the lobbying effort by agricultural interests, not big oil interests, to require the integration of ethanol-based fuel, at considerable cost, into U.S. gasoline supplies.
But there’s more…
“What we’re trying to say is, big oil contributes to Congress – and because of that, Congress is beholden to Big Oil, they get to write energy policy. We’re saying – don’t take any more oil money, and start coming up with sane energy policies. Things like increasing the CAFE standards, putting money into renewable resources, and also energy sources that don’t create emissions like wind and solar,” said Lee Godfrey, a Staunton MoveOn member who organized a Rally for an Oil-Free Congress that was held last week in the Queen City.
There’s an element of rationality in the argument for mandating better gasoline mileage in automobiles — although such a mandate would limit consumer choice by forcing Americans to buy smaller cars, it would reduce gasoline consumption. As for the other nostrums – newable energy, wind, solar, etc. — as desirable as they are, they would have zero impact on the price of gasoline. You see, wind and solar power would increase the supply of electricity, not gasoline! And we haven’t figured out a way yet to produce electric-powered automobiles that anyone will buy.
The other foolishness embedded in the Moveon.org critique is that conservation is good but high gasoline prices are bad. I happen to believe that conservation is very, very good. But common sense tells you that the best way to get people and businesses to conserve energy is to charge them more for it! If Moveon.org’s brow-beating of the petroleum companies succeeded in nudging down the price of gasoline, it would only undercut the larger goal of conservation.
If Moveon.org cared to address the real problems instead of shilling for the Democratic Party, it would focus on the fact that Americans are burning more gasoline because they’re driving more. Duh! Getting people to drive less would require paying attention to dysfunctional land use patterns. Of course, that line of thinking wouldn’t fit the Moveon.org worldview. No one is going to believe that the Big Oil companies are paying off local Virginia politicos in order to perpetuate the scattered, disconnected, low-density patterns of development that forces people to drive more.
Ironically, you could make the argument that Moveon.org is doing Big Oil a favor by distracting people from the real cause of rising U.S. demand for gasoline. Hmmm. Makes you wonder. Could Big Oil be paying Moveon.org to muddy the issues? If you adopted Moveon.org’s conspiratorial mode of thinking, it would make total sense.