From gas tax relief to drilling in ANWR, IBD examines the true cost and effect of proposed solutions to our energy needs.
Part Forty-Nine
Energy: Russia's invasion of neighboring Georgia has revealed the West's major weakness: Our dependence on questionable governments around the world for oil, the very lifeblood of our prosperity. So what do we do?
Part Forty-Eight
Energy Policy: After calling plans to drill for more oil a "hoax," Speaker Nancy Pelosi now says she'll allow a vote on drilling for more crude to reach the floor of the House. We'll believe it when we see it.
Part Forty-Seven
Energy Policy: Democrats say there should be a limit to the profits oil companies can make. Should there also be a limit on the taxes government can take? Just who's the profiteer here?
Part Forty-Six
Energy: John McCain visits California to make the case for offshore drilling. The oil spill off Santa Barbara was 40 years ago. It's time to stop crying over spilled oil.
Part Forty-Five
Leadership: When it comes to giving relief at the pump by drilling for more oil, this is truly a "do-nothing" Democratic Congress. President Bush should give 'em hell like Harry Truman did.
Part Forty-Four
Energy: It has become something of an article of faith among those who oppose drilling in the Arctic that it's too much trouble for too little oil. Well, how about 90 billion barrels of oil? Too little for you?
Part Forty-Three
Oil Development: In boldly announcing plans to unlock the crude in America's vast shale-oil reserves, President Bush is showing real leadership. Now only Congress stands in the way of a brighter energy future.
Part Forty-Two
Energy: A day after House Democrats pretend to be in favor of drilling, Sen. Diane Feinstein calls offshore drilling a "distraction." Mark Sept. 30 on your calendar. It's the day Democrats have to put up or shut up.
Part Forty-One
Energy Policy: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pushing the "Drill Responsibly in Leased Lands Act" to block offshore drilling. The fact is, these offshore rigs may be the ticket to saving both our coasts and our economy.
Part Forty
Energy Policy: Imagine an energy plan that does it all — from allowing more oil drilling to spending billions on alternative energy sources such as wind, solar and nuclear. Well, guess what? Been there, done that.
Part Thirty-Nine
Energy Policy: A world-famous Texas oilman says our energy answer lies in alternative energy. While tilting at windmills, he says that we can't drill our way to energy bliss. So why do the Russians keep drilling?
Part Thirty-Eight
Energy: Anyone who's not sure why gasoline prices are so high has the opportunity to see a real-time reason being played out in public as an environmental group sues over the expansion of a refinery.
Part Thirty-Seven
Oil: With the long July Fourth weekend, you might get a chance to see your senator or representative. If so, you should be ready to dispel a few myths politicians now have about drilling for more oil.
Part Thirty-Six
Energy: What do the Democratic-led Congress and OPEC have in common? Both sit on vast amounts of oil, and are content to leave it in the ground and let prices soar. Fortunately, Americans are catching on.
Part Thirty-Five
Energy: As pressure builds to develop America's domestic energy resources, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid now says it's a health issue. Coal and oil, he says, make us sick. So why does he oppose nuclear power?
Part Thirty-Four
Energy Policy: The Federal Reserve and its leader, Ben Bernanke, have taken a lot of hits in recent weeks. Some even suggest that the energy crisis is due more to Fed fumbling than anything else. This is preposterous.
Part Thirty-Three
Energy Policy: The U.S. is beset by hostile petro-states determined to drive up oil and ream our economy. No matter to Barack Obama. He's drawn a new bead on . . . Canada, our best supplier. His arrogance will cost us.
Part Thirty-Two
Energy: Democrats, in their never-ending search for scapegoats, have had a go at oil company CEOs, industry profits and now oil "speculators." They've looked everywhere but where they should — in the mirror.
Part Thirty-One
Energy: The public wants more oil, but Democrats keep offering the same solutions, not one of which includes drilling and all of which are asinine. Do they think the American people are fools?
Part Thirty
Energy Independence: President Bush asks Congress to lift the 1981 drilling ban on offshore oil. The no-drill Democrats will call it flip-flopping. We call it change you can believe in.
Part Twenty-Nine
Energy Policy: While Democrats want to continue to outsource our energy supplies to the likes of Hugo Chavez, John McCain wants to repeal the federal ban on offshore drilling. The energy tide is turning.
Part Twenty-Eight
Energy: The green light given by the Fish and Wildlife Service for oil drilling off Alaska is being portrayed as an OK to hurt polar bears. But there are so many polar bears, it's the drillers who should worry.
Part Twenty-Seven
Oil: Exxon Mobil is selling its gas stations because there's no money in it. Meanwhile, two GOP congressmen do what John McCain should do — change their position on drilling in ANWR.
Part Twenty-Six
Energy: Oil is selling as if the world is running out of crude. It's not. In this country alone there is at least 118 billion barrels of recoverable but untapped oil, a bit more than Iraq's estimated reserves.
Part Twenty-Five
Energy: A leader in Congress sees a need for "obviously more production" from America's abundant energy reserves. Is Rahm Emanuel, head of the House Democratic Caucus, joining the "drill here, drill now" bandwagon?
Part Twenty-Four
Energy: America was saved Tuesday from a Democratic Congress determined to do more damage to our economy and raise oil prices still higher. Energy taxes and eco-extremism make Democrats the real oil gougers.
Part Twenty-Three
Energy: The average price for regular gas hit $4 a gallon over the weekend. Gas prices have risen 75% since Nancy Pelosi took over. Where's the energy independence Democrats promised two years ago?
Part Twenty-Two
Energy Policy: The International Energy Agency says $45 trillion (with a "t") will be needed to fight climate change. Much of the money could be better spent, but at least the agency has embraced nuclear power.
Part Twenty-One
Energy Policy: Thirty-two long years have passed since the U.S. had a new oil refinery. But a small South Dakota community wants to change that. Finally, some rational thinking.
Part Twenty
Congress: Exxon Mobil's CEO says his energy company's "corporate social responsibility" is to produce more energy. While Congress wants to tax oil profits, he wants to spend them to find more oil. What a concept.
Part Nineteen
Congress: Analysts have found that investors spooked by the peak oil theory — the belief that crude production has topped out and is in decline — are partly behind the soaring oil prices. Someone should set them straight.
Part Eighteen
Congress: Democrats oppose extracting 10 billion barrels of oil from ANWR because it won't affect prices, but want to tap our strategic reserve of 700 million because it will. Come again?
Part Seventeen
Energy: Senate Democrats, dragging executives from five major U.S. oil companies before them for a second day, say they're alarmed by our "failed" oil markets. What they should be is ashamed.
Part Sixteen
Energy: It's now a cliche: fat-cat oilmen control our destiny by holding back supplies, letting prices soar, then pocketing the profits. But if any fat cats are to blame for the energy crisis, it's those on Capitol Hill.
Part Fifteen
Energy: With the price of oil spiking above $127 a barrel, the search for scapegoats has begun. Some point to the Saudis, OPEC's No. 1 producer. Others blame the oil companies. We have a better candidate: Congress.
Part Fourteen
Energy Policy: With pump prices still climbing — Wednesday's national average was $3.76 a gallon — many Americans are trying to get rid of their gas guzzlers. Those who drive old clunkers should be accommodated.
Part Thirteen
For the last 28 years, Democrats in Congress and a few Republicans have again and again opposed our drilling for oil in Alaska's ANWR area when we knew it contained at least 10 billion barrels of oil we could be using now.
Part Twelve
Energy: In their ongoing war against U.S. oil producers, Senate Democrats say they'll slap Big Oil with a windfall profits tax and take away $17 billion in tax breaks, among other punishments. This is an energy plan?
Part Eleven
Energy Policy: Barack Obama thinks a federal gas-tax holiday is a political ploy. But when he was in the Illinois Senate, he voted for a state holiday three times. These days, he prefers a holiday on gasoline production.
Part Ten
Energy: Hillary Clinton says she wants to dismantle OPEC if she becomes president. Actually, that's not a bad idea. And we have just the way for her to do it.
Part Nine
Energy: Call it the paranoid theory of petroleum. Somehow, dark forces behind the scenes keep us from doing anything about soaring oil prices. In fact, something is being done to bring down oil prices. And you're doing it.
Part Eight
Profits: Exxon Mobil's first-quarter earnings of $10.9 billion, up 17% from a year earlier, are stirring outrage in Washington. Some are calling such profits "obscene." What a sad lack of understanding of economics.
Part Seven
Energy: Senate Republicans want to freeze ethanol mandates that don't cut the price of fuel or help the environment. Even farm-state Democrats worry about the unintended consequences of putting corn in our cars.
Part Six
Energy: President Bush let the Democrat-led Congress have it with both barrels Tuesday, lambasting lawmakers for fiddling while the energy crisis burns. It was a well-deserved takedown of do-nothing lawmakers.
Part Five
Energy Policy: After weeks of dithering and fearing for her party's political life, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has finally said something about energy. We listened. As the old Peggy Lee song asks, "Is that all there is?"
Part Four
Oil Shock: When it comes to energy policy, Democrats always talk a good game. But look at their actual record while in control of Congress in the last year and a half. It's been nothing short of disastrous.
Part Three
Energy: One way to bring down the soaring price of gasoline is to decrease demand. We can do that fairly painlessly by taking older, less fuel-efficient cars off the road.
Part Two
Energy: As Democrats bicker over campaign-trail trivia, GOP standard-bearer John McCain has come up with a couple of good ideas to ease the pain of the energy crisis. Let's hope they have legs.
Part One
Energy: America's energy crunch is sadly self-inflicted. While others around the world engage in a mad dash to find more oil reserves, the U.S. seems to think $111-a-barrel oil won't be affected by more supply.
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