Liberals love to blame President Bush for everything from terrorist attacks to hurricanes and everything in between (credit for economic growth and declining deficits are nowhere to be seen). So as gas prices rise, naturally the President is attacked. Aside from the fact that prices in a free market are determined by the market and not the government, the government does play a role by virtue of how it interferes with market pricing mechanisms (directly, such as with inane price caps, or indirectly, with policies that influence supply and demand).

And it turns out, naturally, that liberal policies have capped the supply of gasoline (via refinery capacity), which is causing the price spikes.

A new oil refinery has not been built in the United States since 1976. During that time, our gasoline use has increased over 25 percent. The nation's 149 existing refineries have been running at maximum capacity trying to meet record demand and, as a result, not only do we import oil, we actually have to import 10 percent of our daily gasoline from refineries overseas.

Economics would dictate that this situation trigger new investment in refining capacity, but this is where regulations hamper the process.

But getting an oil refinery built is next to impossible, hence the 30-year construction drought. There will always be environmental activists who fight any new proposed refinery, regardless of where it might be located and how environmentally safe it is. And our environmental rules give them the upper hand...

Consider the example of Arizona Clean Fuels, which has been trying to build a small refinery outside Yuma for almost 10 years. It took five years just to get air-quality permits. Now they hope to be operational in 2010, 15 years after they started the project.

Unfortunately, it usually takes a calamity (blackout, hurricane) to change things. Remember this maxim when Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security teeter on the brink of bankruptcy and we could have addressed these issues now if not for demagoguing Democrats.

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