That National Gas Map's Looking Kinda Green

Last week, the national gas map was mostly yellow, with green found only in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. This week, we're seeing that the price of gas has fallen throughout much of the Plains states, the Southeast, and even moderating along both coasts. This chart shows that the price topped out and is slowly trending down.

So, who, or what, gets the credit for the price drop? Chalk it up to the market. More to the point, the price moderation and decrease is due to changing market conditions - more supply is available despite the fact that demand hasn't changed. None of the politicans, including President Bush whose proposals included ceasing to purchase oil for the SPR, have affected the price because the market is simply too big, and what few suggestions have been offered are trivial and insigificant in a global market that determines prices.

Meanwhile, you've got some predicting that oil will top $100 per barrel. And the Secretary of Energy predicts that oil will stay at these higher prices for the next three years. Sure, and I can read tea leaves too - and can just as easily predict that prices will drop to $50-60 a barrel. Doesn't mean that it will come to pass, but the inane recommendations to provide $100 rebates wont solve the problem.

Angry constituents have asked, "Do you think we are prostitutes? Do you think you can buy us?" said another Republican senator's aide, who was granted anonymity to openly discuss the feedback because the senator had supported the plan.

Conservative talk radio hosts have been particularly vocal. "What kind of insult is this?" Rush Limbaugh asked on his radio program on Friday. "Instead of buying us off and treating us like we're a bunch of whores, just solve the problem." In commentary on Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume called the idea "silly."

The reaction comes as the rising price of gasoline has put the public in a volatile mood and as polls show that cynicism about Congress is at its highest level since 1994.

Still, Eric Ueland, chief of staff to Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Republican leader, whose office played a main role in pulling the proposal together, said the rebate was an important short-term step in a broader array of measures that began with last year's energy bill. Constituents "believe government ought to step up to the plate rather than loll around in the dugout," Mr. Ueland wrote in an e-mail message on Sunday.

Throwing money at taxpayers wont fix the problem. It doesn't even address the problem at all. It's an attempt to gloss over the fact that US government has repeatedly failed to implement a comprehensive energy policy since the OPEC oil crisis of the 1970s. Price controls were a dismal failure, windfall profits taxes are a failure because they punish the very companies who would otherwise have incentives to produce more oil (and hence obtain more profits), and the latest recommendations are no different.