More Energy, Not More Restrictions

Senate Republicans introduced a proposal to go forward with a number of energy reforms that should’ve been instituted long ago, but, with energy prices on the rise, are especially pressing now. Here are a couple of things the bill would do, as listed in the Reuters report:

– Allow states to petition the federal government to allow oil drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts;

– Repeal a 1-year moratorium on drilling in oil shale regions in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah;

– Repeal previous legislation prohibiting federal agencies from using alternative fuels that emit more greenhouse gases than conventional sources, which has been viewed as a de facto ban on U.S. government use of fuels refined from the Canadian oil sands.

Oil costs are likely to remain high for the immediate future, and in the medium term, they may even rise. There’s simply no way to quickly legislate our way out of this. But finding ways to allow private companies to increase production is certainly one way to ease some of the potential pain at the pump in the future. And it’s certainly a better approach than what Democrats tend to offer:

The Republican plan is heavy on supply-side ideas which could tap up to 24 billion barrels of new oil supply. Democrats have traditionally leaned toward demand-side energy solutions like fuel-efficient cars.

But why do we need to regulate the demand side? As Doug Bandow points out, when prices go up, auto buyers look for cars with better fuel efficiency all on their own. They’re called markets, and they work!