As gas prices in the United States continue to soar, policymakers in Washington are eager to point fingers and offer solutions. Most of the ideas are not new, and some are certainly much better than others, but they will inevitably be part of the debate. As legislators turn their attention to gas prices, here’s a straightforward list of what not to do. 1. Don’t increase subsidies for biofuels. The most popular subsidized biofuel, ethanol, produces less energy per unit volume than does gasoline, contributes to food price increases, costs taxpayers …
Bad energy policy usually involves repeating the mistakes made from 1970 to 1980 — windfall profits taxes, federally subsidized alternative energy sources, price controls, and others. All of these old ideas are back in play, even though their track record for worsening rather than solving the nation’s energy problems is there for all to see. But when it comes to the green jobs argument — that new federal energy and environmental requirements will create jobs and spur economic growth — we’re also repeating the blunders of another decade, the 1930s. …
To compete with Hillary Clinton’s pandering on a gas tax holiday, Barack Obama proposed a windfall profits tax on oil companies of his own last month. The Obama plan is not unlike the windfall oil profits tax passed by Hugo Chavez just two weeks earlier. Obama would slap a 20% tax on the cost of a barrel of oil above $80 for all domestic oil companies. Chavez tax hits only foreign oil companies and charges a 50% rate for the cost of a barrel of oil above $70. The difference …
“ObamaNation” was apoplectic over ABC News’ decision to question Barack Obama over his associations with a Louis Farrakhan-sympathetic preacher and a college professor up from the Weather Underground. But the Illinois senator’s answers on questions that dealt with policy were even more illuminating. A segment on the economy included this exchange: CHARLES GIBSON: All right. You have, however, said you would favor an increase in the capital gains tax. As a matter of fact, you said on CNBC, and I quote, “I certainly would not go above what existed under …
