US Congress' Stupidity Driving Up Oil Price

Do you think skyrocketing oil prices are due to peak oil? To oil speculators? To hedge fund speculators? Yes, but probably the US Congress is the culprit behind this weeks upward surges. The Energy Independence and Security Act 2007 passed by the US Democratic Party-led Congress is causing many oil analysts concern over whether the law means that the US is barred from using oil from Canada's immense tar sands deposits. The answer to that question may be too expensive to find out. If enough analysts believe the answer to be "no dice for tar sands" then expect oil prices to go well above the current US $110 a barrel psychological ceiling.

But that is not the bad news. The bad news is that idiot-filled legislatures such as the current US Congress are not uncommon around the globe. Every country that takes CO2 hysteria seriously will pay a huge price in the economic and industrial sphere. Governments are not manned by intelligent people who understand the real world. So if governments pass laws based upon unscientific theories such as CAGW, it is their people who will pay with their jobs, their houses, their families, their health, and ultimately their lives--if government caused financial distress pushes society too far.

This is only the beginning.

The US Congress should consider itself duly warned, and should immediately pass legislature that explicitly removes Canadian tar sands from the provisions of the 2007 energy bill. Failure to do so is a shot into the heart of the US economy, and a further boost to oil prices.

But that may be the goal. Economic hardship in a presidential election year is generally blamed on the President, rather than the Congress--which is often more directly responsible for the health of the economy than the President. We will only know the answer to that question if a Democratic Party candidate is elected President in November.