Oh boy, another record high gas price!  Surely Congress chastising oil executives last month should have brought the prices down by now, right?  Maybe Congress is banking on scaring OPEC countries into pumping more oil with their ridiculous scheme to sue OPEC over unfair practices.  Whatever this Congress has planned at the moment for lowering fuel costs, the American public can rest assured that their plans won’t work, we will continue our dependence on unfriendly regimes, and our wallets will bleed dry at the pump.

I’m no sympathizer of Big Oil, but these guys are not America’s problem.  Congress has been feeding the American people the same bologna sandwich for the past thirty years about cutting our dependence on foreign oil.  I can only explain why we haven’t cut this dependence with a combination of two problems: 1) inept leadership; 2) pandering to special interests.  Luckily both of these problems can be fixed.

The Democratic “leadership” is now faced with scores of people screaming for them to allow oil companies to take the most prudent path, drill here and drill now.  Here’s where the inept part comes in.

The main argument against utilizing our own natural resources in a comprehensive energy plan for our country has been that drilling for more oil will hurt the world environment and contribute to global warming, so we should concentrate on alternative fuels like solar, wind, and biofuels.  This argument is completely flawed for several reasons.

First of all, advanced technology allows for drilling with more precision and the ability to make less of an impact on the environment.  The caribou in Alaska have been doing just fine. 

Second, when was the last time you saw a wind powered car?  Or even a solar powered car?  These options just aren’t economically feasible for the American consumer.  Plus, government subsidies for farmers to produce corn for ethanol instead of food have recently been blamed for worldwide increases in food prices and food shortages.

Third, despite Al Gore’s movie, the theory of global warming is not sound or trustworthy enough to design our country’s energy policy around, especially when over 31,000 American scientists have rejected global warming as nonsense.  If Congress wants to use a scientific theory to develop a policy that affects over 300 million people, that theory should have unanimous consensus.  The Democrats have never shown that they are beings of logic though.  Logic would dictate that the welfare of human life would take precedence over the lives of caribou, but then again, this is a political party that advocates murdering babies.

Fourth, if Congress really cared about clean energy, why not invest in clean nuclear energy, or clean coal plants, or even natural gas?  America has some of the largest coal deposits and natural gas reserves in the world.  Combining these resources with the huge amount of oil deposits we have sitting unused, and Congress might be able to put together an effective, cost efficient, domestically centered energy plan that could buy us enough time for someone to invent wind powered cars.

Yet despite these flaws, and others, Congress wants to steal money from oil companies to invest in alternative fuels that will not help us, and engage in hypocritical debate about OPEC not producing enough oil.  While Congress is “bitching” about OPEC, as Neil Cavuto put it, the abundance of natural resources that belong to the American people go unused.

Our government’s highest priority is to protect the American people, especially from foreign influence.  Such is the reason George Washington warned our leaders to be prudent in dealing with foreign nations.  Machiavelli makes it clear that going to war with foreign arms will cause the enslavement and ruin of a prince to the foreigners.  Well America is at war, both literally in Iraq and Afghanistan and figuratively with OPEC, and we are excessively relying on foreign product, while slowly moving closer to slavery.

Congress has a history of failing to protect the American people from foreign influences (cultural subversion by the Soviets during the Cold War still seen today; porous borders and mass illegal immigration, etc.) and seems proud to continue in that failure today. 

I’m always amazed that despite such failures by our government, large numbers of Americans are content to give the government more and more control over our lives and trust these people to take care of us.  Hence, Barrack Obama.  Personal responsibility is not a quality that will ever be outdated. 

America can’t rely on unsavory foreign regimes for energy security, and the American people can’t rely on a disingenuous domestic regime for personal prosperity.  Self-reliance here, self-reliance now.