So If Gas Goes Up to $12 a Gallon, Can We Then Drill in ANWR?

Good Lord, if this ever comes to pass, are we in deep trouble. Of course, the Democrats will blame the evil Big Oil, will refuse to allow drilling in ANWR and elsewhere within the United States or off our coast, and will probably continue to blame Bush, just because they can.

“[T]he prices that we’re paying at the pump today are, I think, going to be ‘the good old days,’ because others who watch this very closely forecast that we’re going to be hitting $12 and $15 per gallon,” Hirsch said. “And then, after that, when oil – world oil production goes into decline, we’re going to talk about rationing. In other words, not only are we going to be paying high prices and have considerable economic problems, but in addition to that, we’re not going to be able to get the fuel when we want it.”

This could all have been prevented years ago had we not demonized the oil companies, built more refineries, used our own resources and became less dependent on foreign sources of oil.

But then the Democrats wouldn't have had an issue to demagogue.

Maxwell’s original $12-15-a-gallon prediction came in a February 5 interview with Energytechstocks.com, a Web site run by two former Wall Street Journal staffers.

“[Maxwell] expects an oil-induced financial crisis to start somewhere in the 2010 to 2015 timeframe,” Energytechstocks.com reported. “He said that, unlike the recession the U.S. appears to be in today, ‘This will not be six months of hell and then we come out of it.’ Rather, Maxwell expects this financial crisis to last at least 10 or 12 years, as the world goes through a prolonged period of price-induced rationing (eg, oil up to $300 a barrel and U.S. pump prices up to $15 a gallon).”

We'll probably be looking back nostalgically on those glory days of the Carter administration when we had odd-even days at the pumps.