Drilling in ANWR: the best way to suppress oil prices

"Big Oil" has been dragged through the mud on in front of the Senate this week for excessive profits and the possibility they were gouging consumers. Is I had posted earlier it's more a supply and demand issue, OPEC production whims, and market oil prices. And when you run the numbers, the oil companies make somewhere between 7 and 10 cents a gallon. Think that's bad? Depending on the state, the goverment makes an average of 42 cents a gallon based on 2002 data. That's at the least four times as much as the oil companies make, and Hannity was quoting taxes higher than that on his show yesterday. So who's gouging who? And the easiest way to decrease the supply available is to drill in ANWR. That eliminates two problems: our limited supplies and our reliance on OPEC and the rest of the middle east for oil. But now pansy-ass moderate Republicans are voting no on the chance to actually help solve the problem. WASHINGTON (AP) -- For a quarter-century, environmentalists have succeeded in blocking efforts to drill for oil in what they consider a pristine, cherished patch of tundra in an Alaska wildlife refuge. But with sky-high fuel prices and a wider Republican majority in Congress, their long fight to keep oil companies out of the refuge looked to be in trouble. Then they got some help from an unexpected place: House Republicans angry over cuts to social programs. House leaders put off plans Thursday to vote on the budget-cutting package because of opposition to issues unrelated to the Alaska refuge -- deep cuts in Medicaid, food stamps and student loans. The leaders earlier were forced to jettison the Alaska drilling provision from the bill after a group of GOP moderates said they would not vote for the budget if ANWR were included. For shit's sake people. Can we please get going on this. Read the article, and see if your representative is on the list. If so call his or her office and give their staffers a piece of your mind because this is ridiculous. Prices may be lower now versus 3 weeks ago, but $2.69 is still damn expensive. UPDATE: LegalXXX also comments on our elected officials lack of a spine. UPDATE 2: Charles Krauthammer, despite his love for caribou, agrees we should start drilling in ANWR and build more refineries. The increased demand is also due to the 20 gazillion Chinese and Indians in Asia whose industrialization has continued to grow. Definetely a good read.