…and it is Democrats who continue to block , and have blocked (through a filibuster, no less, something that requires a minimum of 60 Senators to overcome, a higher number than Republicans in the senate), exploration in one of the most oil dense areas of the world: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and in the Outer Continental Shelf. All the other methods of decreasing the cost of oil, specifically heavier regulations on auto makers, has a negative impact on jobs, economic growth, and overall efficiency.

Yet drilling in the Arctic and the Outer Continental Shelf, has the exact opposite affect. It would create more jobs, increase economic growth, and overall efficiency while at the same time - because of new technologies and so forth - protect and maintain the environment.

Sparsh,

You’re proving my point here, leaving aside for the moment your dubious claims and what (very little) impact gas prices would have on that, you make clear just what I have been saying all along: liberals want higher gas prices.

Can you send that memo to the politicians in office?

I have to go to work now but you’ll get another earfull later.

To review, here are tghe causes of high oild prices.

Demand-
Increased consumption by India and China - How is this the democratic parties fault.

Low fuel economy standards - Yes it was Ari Fleisher who said that President Bush was opposed to conservation, that we were blessed with bountiful resources. How is this a democrats fault. it is Republicans who have opposed increased fuel efficiency standards.

Supply

Lower oil production in Iraq - Yes it was a republican president who pushed through a war of choice in Iraq in a repupblican controlled senate. It was a republican defense secretary who ignored the advice of most of his military commanders that more troops were necessary to secure Iraq after toppling Sadaam. It was a republican secretary of defense who referred to the Sunni insurgents killing our troops and massacring Iraqi civilians as “a few dead-enders”. It was a republican vice president who repeatedly the last three years declared the insurgency in “its final throes”. It was a republican presdent who stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier and declared “Mission Accomplished” when more than 2,000 more soldiers were to be killed. It was a Republican administration who selected Halliburton, the Republican VP’s ex-company in a no-bid contract to repair the main pipeline from the northern territories of Iraq where 80% of Iraqi oil comes from and that contractor three years later despite hudreds of million of dollars spent has been unable to repair the pipeline, leaving Iraq three years later generating less oil than when Saddam was in power.

It was a republican president who spent all of his diplomatic capital in ignoring the will of the international community in Iraq that has emboldened Iraq to accelerate their nucleur program knowing the distrust the rest of the world has towards our president.

It was a republican president who ignored the dire warnings of a major hurricane approaching sat silently on a conference call from his vacation home while the head of the atmospheric association predicted that the levees would fail to hold the water. His FEMA failed to respond in a timely manner where the nations largest refineries were located.

It was a republican congress that passed a requirement for ethanol in cars to pander to the state that has the first presidential caucus.

It is a republican majority in both houses that can’t pass Alaskan oil driling.

Otherwise more of us would be focusing on the main issues that should be raised by any discussion related to energy independence and international relations.

I’m quoting professor Rush here: It’s Big Dictator, Not Big Oil Robber Barons: Nancy Pelosi should know that the real robber barons are not Big Oil. They’re Big Dictator from Bolivia to Venezuela to Iran… and I would add Saudi Arabia to that list. Let’s get real people.

Environmentalist regulations are just one factor on a laundry list, but that doesn’t mean that environmental factors are insignificant. Besides, on that list of factors, environmental factors are the ones that we have the most control over. So if you limit the causes of the high gas prices to those we as a nation can address, environmental factors become one of the primary causes of the high gas prices.

Btw, nobody said that the cause of the high oil prices is solely the fault of “one Jewish liberal lawyer from Brooklyn”, more generally, the cause of the high gas prices is primarily the fault of “one liberal enviromental group called the Democratic party”, Schumer just being but one participant of it.