On Wed, 19 May 2004 16:27:59 -0700, jps wrote:

Two things:

One, he voted once ten years ago to raise taxes on fuel. Much has been
made of a short dalliance, which has never since been revisited.

We should have been increasing fuel taxes. If gas had been taxed to
$3 a gallon years ago, the supply situation wouldn't be what it is
today. Cheap fuel has been about as good to our long term economic
health as cheap hamburgers have been to our physical health.

Two, Kerry is advocating diverting present contributions to the
strategic oil reserves to the refineries. I haven't heard him advocate
on behalf of using the present reserves, but perhaps I've missed
something.

Supposedly, a large part of the problem is refinery capacty is running
at about 97%. As long as 8 mpg personal transportation is wildly
popular, things aren't going to get any better.

And, even if diverting supplies from the strategic reserves helped, it
would be temporary at best. Until we do something to control demand,
supplies will be strained, the middle east will have us by the short
hairs, and the terrorists will be swimming in money. But hey, Hummers
are really cool.

bb