Gas Price Sideshows

How Not to Cure an Addiction - New York Times: "During his State of the Union speech last January, President Bush correctly diagnosed America's oil consumption as an addiction. Unfortunately, Mr. Bush is balking at taking the steps to cure the abuse. Yesterday, the president told an audience of the Renewable Fuels Association in Washington that he would try to lower gasoline prices by increasing the supply of oil available to Americans this summer. His plan is to refrain from topping off the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but it &hellips; is nearly full already, so skipping a few deposits won't appreciably affect supply or prices. &hellips; Mr. Bush's other recommendations were similarly off point. For instance, he acknowledged that higher prices reflected global demand. But he offered no strategy to combat demand-driven price rises."

The piece goes on to observe what I was thinking last night: the supposed crack down on price gouging is a sideshow. If they want to know what oil executives are busy doing, they should put them in peril of perjury when they testify before Congress.