To be fair

[yendi]

I've taken Sonny Purdue to task plenty of times, although he still remains one of the more tolerable Georgia Republicans (a little like calling Italy the "Happy Fun Part of the Axis" during WWII, admittedly).

But his statements here regarding the gas prices in GA? Dead-on.

Comments

[crystalsage.livejournal.com]

wow...a republican with a brain. How novel.

If only GWB would propose a nation-wide cap on fuel prices, or release that "reserve" they're talking about. Cause if this keeps up, nobody's gonna be able to afford to go ANYWHERE.

[trochee.livejournal.com]

hahah! happy fun part of the axis. [/nelson]

Every once in a while, one of those republicans goes off-message. Note that he's only stopping gouging at retail, though. wholesale gouging goes right on.

[amokk]

The reserve isn't the problem, we have the oil, we don't have the refineries to turn the oil into gasoline.

And if we did a price-cap, we'll be in the 70s all over again, only with even higher prices.

[yendi]

But better clothes!

[darth-spacey.livejournal.com]

And that, indeed is the problem, and even if you tackle "gouging" from the wholesalers to the retailers, you'd have to then find some way to make US laws apply to OPEC, and stop them "gouging".

The fact of the matter is, with a dip in domestic production, we have to pay the extra to get oil from overseas shipped to the USA -- it's just the "shipping and handling" fee. Likewise, with a dip in domestic refining, we have to pay the extra to get someone else to refine it for us.

Two very strong arguments for increasing domestic production and refining, even without the current dip, but hopefully we learn our lesson the hard way, and try to better protect ourselves for the future.

[trochee.livejournal.com]

Two very strong arguments for increasing domestic production and refining

or, perhaps wiser, reducing domestic consumption.

[darth-spacey.livejournal.com]

Ideally, we should do both, but reduced usage is something that's going to take decades of advancing technology, and changing people's habits. Drilling and refining can be put in place within years.

If we do both, we'll be capable of being self-sufficient a lot faster.