Well, now, I never realized that the silent dog that solved Sherlock Holmes' murder investigation was a female. But it now is clear: In the face of gasoline prices well above $3 per gallon, even for the regular grade, the ineffable Barbara Boxer, whom I am proud to have as one of my representatives in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body (the U.S. Senate), has maintained a silence utterly deafening and supremely amusing. No conspiracy accusations. No calls for investigations. No demands for testimony before Congressional committees.
Now, why would that be? Never before has Babs been so modest in her complaints, so retiring in her accusations, so timid in her pursuit of wealth redistribution, oops, justice for her constituencies. Could it be that the current price runup has been caused in substantial part by the oxygenation mandate for motor fuels---a requirement for the use of either ethanol or MTBE, neither of which has been shown to reduce air pollution---for which she voted? Could it be that she voted against liability protection for the MTBE producers in the face of groundwater leakage lawsuits, leaving ethanol production capacity too meager to prevent price runups in the gasoline market? Well, yes, truth be told; so, please, Senator, speak up with the courage that you always have displayed, and tell us whom to blame for this outcome.
Now, why would that be? Never before has Babs been so modest in her complaints, so retiring in her accusations, so timid in her pursuit of wealth redistribution, oops, justice for her constituencies. Could it be that the current price runup has been caused in substantial part by the oxygenation mandate for motor fuels---a requirement for the use of either ethanol or MTBE, neither of which has been shown to reduce air pollution---for which she voted? Could it be that she voted against liability protection for the MTBE producers in the face of groundwater leakage lawsuits, leaving ethanol production capacity too meager to prevent price runups in the gasoline market? Well, yes, truth be told; so, please, Senator, speak up with the courage that you always have displayed, and tell us whom to blame for this outcome.
3 comments:
Babs is definitely worried about us Americans. Instead of launching an investigation, I'm sure this time she is preparing a bill to reverse the federal gas surcharge (tax of 18.4 cents/gallon per http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=80).
She's particularly interested in reversing the 1993 Clinton/Gore add-on. Right?
So, Ben, gasoline reformulation is just a comforting fiction of the left?
Oh well, everybody has their Intelligent Designs...
Tom, the MTBE requirement, and especially the refusal to protect gasoline producers against lawsuits for obeying a federal law(!!!), was indeed disastrously stupid and wrong. The costs are grotesquely out of proportion with the minuscule benefits. Other ways of reducing air pollution, which are far more efficient, should be used in preference to schemes such as this. The air in this country is much, much cleaner than it was forty years ago, thanks to the Clean Air Act and other effective measures, but not everything purported to clean up the air actually works or is worth anything near the costs. MTBE is one of those that most decidedly is not.
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