Wednesday, July 09, 2008

How Carl Levin Helped Hike Gas Prices

With the nation struggling under record-high gas prices, Americans are demanding answers. Who is responsible for these prices? There is plenty of blame to go around, but a share of the blame must fall on Michigan's senior senator, Carl Levin.

Levin has consistently promoted bad energy policies and opposed good ones.

Levin has promoted government meddling in the energy sector, increased government regulations, ineffective 'alternative energy', and poverty-increasing 'conservation'. He supported the 2007 energy bill which included a bundle of bad regulations, including banning traditional light bulbs. 'Alternative energy' is inefficient and ineffective, and only exists due to government spending of taxpayer money.

Levin supported CAFE fuel economy standards that lead to thousands of additional car crash deaths per year. This is because mandating higher gas mileages forces people into lighter cars. They are less safe, and lead to more traffic fatalities. CAFE standards also hurt Michigan's already struggling auto industry, and lead to more Michigan job losses.

Levin has been a leader in promoting conspiracy theories of oil company price manipulation. Investigations have repeatedly debunked these claims.

Levin also voted for higher gas taxes. The so-called 'windfall profits tax' would have reduced the profit motive, thus discouraging energy production and increasing gas prices.

Levin supported cloture on the Lieberman-Warner bill to raise taxes via a 'cap-and-trade' system to fight the supposed threat of global warming. He said that he would have voted against final passage, however.

Meanwhile, Levin was opposing increasing energy production, the only policy that can really reduce energy prices.

Levin has repeatedly opposed new drilling for oil in Alaska. Drilling in a tiny portion on ANWR could produce millions of barrels of American oil, lowering gas prices and creating jobs. This would not hurt the environment at all. But time after time, year after year, Carl Levin opposed drilling for oil in Alaska.

Anyone who wants lower gas prices should help to remove Carl Levin from office.

On the Issues: Carl Levin on Energy & Oil
Core Principles: Carl Levin: We Can't Drill Our Way Out

4 comments:

Dan Roth said...

Now I'm one who totally disagrees with this idea that smaller cars lead to higher highway deaths. I'm much safer in my Ford Focus than I would be in a large SUV. Reason: my car is much more nimble, stops quicker, has a lower center of gravity, and has a smaller turning radius. This means I'm more capable to avoid an accident. The stats of this can be easily twisted when looking at the percentage of accidents being fatal in small cars compared to large cars without taking into consideration the best kind of accident: the one you avoid. There's also the matter of escalation. An Explorer running into an Explorer is very much like a Focus running into a Focus. Less large vehicles on the road means smaller cars become safer. Short story is that I'll never give up smaller cars. Plus higher gas prices are pushing people to more fuel efficient cars more than any government regulation (which I oppose).

But I'm just wondering what Carl Levin has against the capitalistic free market. If a company finds a way to offer us cheaper gas, they'll do it. But the government interferes. If ANWR really wouldn't result in anything, open it up. The bean counters at the oil company would logically come to the same conclusion and do the same. But if they can get the oil and turn it into gas for less than they do with Saudi gas, we'll get lower prices, they make money, and everyone wins. So to Carl Levin and all the other leftists out there: put up or shut up.

RightMichigan.com said...

Lets not forget, those Levin / Obama backed CAFE spikes are also expected to add thousands to the production cost of every domestic automobile.

Just what the Big 3, Michigan's top job producers, need while battling through Jennifer Granholm's economic collapse.

--Nick
www.RightMichigan.com

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Sorry about deleting the previous post, got distracted and accidentally posted it before I finished it.

As far as CAFE standards go, the whole thing is a fraud and a hoax. Every automaker has built cars that can get 75 to 100 mpg without going small. My grandfather was an engineer for Ford and he was part of a team of engineers that produced engines that got 75 to 100 mpg in the 1950s.

After his retirement from Ford, my grandfather told everyone he knew about how the oil companies would come in to the auto companies and pay the automakers to NOT produce these engines. The oil and auto companies would then take the motors and the engineering plans and destroy them. My grandfather was witness to these events and was forced to sign non-disclosure agreements or lose his job.

Other engineers I know from GM have seen the same things. It is the same with hybrids from the Big 3 automakers. Hybrids could have come out cheaply at least a decade ago, but the oil companies keep paying to stop or slow the technology. GM's Volt is way behind schedule as they say that the technology to produce their cars is two years off, yet Tesla Motors and HST International have already proven that electric cars are a very viable alternative.

The Corvette Z06, with its 500 horsepower engine, gets over 20 mpg. A fast sports car with 500 hp gets 20+ mph? What does that tell you? That smaller engines with less horsepower should get much better fuel mileage.

This whole mpg and alternative fuel crap is the biggest hoax perpetrated on the world next to global warming.

Meantime, the left keeps our prices high deliberately to make us drive less and save the environment. Now they are thinking about lowering the speed limit in the US to 55 mph. This was tried before to save energy and it did not work. All it did was increases prices on consumer goods because it increased the time of transporting goods across America. It also means that perishables have a shorter shelf life when they finally reach their destination.

The left never learns from past mistakes.