Donks To Blame For High Gas Prices

So says Hugh Hewitt, and he's absolutely right:

If [hurricane] Katrina takes refinery capacity off-line, the effect at the pump will be immediate. Ther is no more capacity available to up output within the counry. Shortfalls will have to be made up from imported gasoline suppliers. They are unlikely to be moved by complaints of gauging from American congressmen.

At this point Americans may ask why no new refinery has been built in the United States since 1976. (There is one on the drawing board for Yuma, Arizona.)

There were 315 refineries operating in the United States in 1981. There are 144 operating today....

Bottom line: High gasoline prices are the result of decisions made by legislators. It is that simple. Congressmen decided to put in place the laws that have led to these prices, and to the higher ones ahead. They have chosen to cripple refinery construction and domestic oil exploration.

The "they," by the way, are overwhelmingly Democrats....

[T]he ANWR vite will be coming up soon. You may want to call your elected representatives and ask how they will be voting and what they will be doing to get new refineries under construction.

This can be a huge issue for Republicans in next year's mid-term elections. Public sentimentality over fish and otters and ducks and caribou won't last very long in the face of $3-4 a gallon at the pump and drastically higher prices for any petroleum-related product (think plastics...), which means the vast majority of the marketplace. And the old "Big Oil/price-gouging" demagoguery can be made to wilt quickly in the face of genuine factual evidence, as Double-H asserts above.

The greenstremists and their Donk catspaws set us up for this predicament. They should absolutely not be allowed to escape primary responsibility for it.

But will the majority party act like the majority party?

The Congressional switchboard: 202-225-3121.