The Heritage Foundation - Leadership for America

The House Republican Conference released a video last week titled “The Pelosi Premium” contrasting then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) 2006 promise to pass a “commonsense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices” with the steep rise in gas prices since she took the gavel. According to the video, the price of a gallon of gas has risen from $2.33 in January 2007 to $3.40 in April 2008.

But let’s say that, as an environmentalist, you want to both 1) drastically reduce carbon emissions; but 2) want to pay as little a political price as possible for causing the requisite economic damage a reduction in carbon emissions would bring. How could you accomplish both of the goals? Well you might just pass a an energy bill that: 1) imposes huge new alternative fuel mandates; 2) allows for no development of new energy sources, and 3) raises taxes that discourage energy exploration and production.

It is not like the House wasn’t repeatedly warned that their policies would lead to higher gas prices. So we must entertain the possibility that that is what they meant to do all along.