Pump prices have eased up in the past few weeks since the record highs of mid-July, but no one seriously thinks that’s going to hold for very long. One skirmish in an oil-producing region, one wrong word from OPEC or one hurricane blowing toward the oil production areas of the Gulf and those pump numbers will be spinning past $4 a gallon faster than you can say, “Fill ’er up!”
It seems like the message has finally reached the people who can actually affect U.S. energy policy in Washington, a group that has collectively buried its head in the sands of the oil-rich Middle East since the gas crisis of the 1970s.
“In the ’70s, we blew it,” U.S. Johnny Isakson, D-Atlanta, said in a meeting Tuesday with The Albany Herald Editorial Board. “If we had done these things 25 years ago, we’d be in a whole different world right now.”
That’s why, for instance, you don’t hear much these days about once-hot issues like congressional earmarks. Back before gas rocketed up like an Apollo moon shot, elected officials looking to instill outrage in the electorate and to gain political traction started attacking that most hallowed of congressional institutions — the pork project.
The Republicans — realizing, no doubt, the frayed thread of an unpopular, lame-duck president’s coattails — were especially active in this area, calling for pledges to be fiscally responsible when it comes to federal spending projects that benefit the folks back home.
Like any issue that doesn’t get political traction, it skidded away.
But House and Senate members on both sides of the aisles are getting an earful about $75 fill-ups at gas stations. And it looks like they’re listening.
The Gashouse Gang of 10 in the Senate — five Republicans and five Democrats — have put out a plan that encompasses both the need to step up domestic production, including opening the eastern Gulf and South Atlantic to drilling, and to step up conservation and alternatives energy sources, including wind, nuclear, cellulose and solar.
“There’s no one silver bullet,” said Isakson, who along with Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Moultrie, helped form the Gashouse Gang. “But there is one truth” — 70 percent of America’s petroleum supply comes from foreign sources, including some places that are, at best, unfriendly — Russia, Iran and Venezuela.
The Gashouse Gang didn’t have much success getting the two parties’ respective leadership to call an energy summit this summer so that the entire Senate could get educated on issues by energy experts from across the spectrum. But with the discontent that’s developed, the Gang has been promised its summit when Congress reopens for business next month.
In the House, U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany, is involved in a similar proposal — the “Made in America” Energy Act of 2008, which also incorporates drilling U.S. oil reserves, the use of alternative fuels, wind energy and nuclear power, and tax credits for the production of flex-fuel and bio-fueled vehicles.
They are promising starts. It will take a truly bipartisan effort to develop a comprehensive energy policy that is both effective in the near term and farsighted. Politics cannot be allowed to run this important issue off the road.
— The Albany Herald Editorial Board