Congressional Dog and Pony Show

Congress is going to drag the oil companies in for another dog and pony show. Just great.

Senior executives of the five largest U.S. oil companies were to appear before a congressional committee Tuesday where they were likely to find frustrated lawmakers in no mood for small talk.

"These companies are defending billions of federal subsidies ... while reaping over a hundred billion dollars in profits in just the last year alone," complained Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., in previewing the hearing.

The lawmakers were scheduled to hear from top executives of Exxon Mobil Corp., Shell Oil Co., BP America Inc., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips, which together earned about $123 billion last year because of soaring oil and gasoline prices.

Markey, chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, said he wants to know why, with such profits, the oil industry is steadfastly fighting to keep $18 billion in tax breaks, stretched over 10 years.

Well the first people Congress should be looking at for a cause for high oil prices is themselves. Limits on domestic oil exploration, drilling and EPA restrictions on building new refineries in the United StatesS all contribute greatly to the problem. According to my research, the last new refinery built in the U.S. was when I was in high school back in 1976. Since that time, our demand for gasoline has jumped about 40%. Approximately ten years ago, the U.S. demand for refined gasoline outgrew our ability to refine it and we have been bridging the gap via importing refined gasoline from Europe. In addition, foreign demand for oil has skyrocketed, with India and China becoming major consumers, thus pushing prices upward.

But blaming the oil companies for high gas prices is like blaming a bakery because people like their bread and bid the prices up. It won't change the situation any, but it may make for some entertaining TV, which is probably the point anyway. Democrats never seem to understand the laws of supply and demand, but they sure understand how to grandstand for the television cameras.