Senator Nelson Likes $5 Gas That No One Can Get

As one who suffered through the devastation of Hurricane Charley, I know that, as bad as our situation was, the people on the Gulf Coast have suffered much more due to the flooding that followed Katrina. Every effort ought to be made to alieve their suffering and stabilize their situation as quickly as possible. The American Red Cross and the National Guard saved us in Florida by bringing us ice, bottled water and hot meals every day. Even so, it is over a year later, and very little rebuilding has been done in the areas of Florida that were hardest hit. That is reality.

The really disgusting part of all of this is listening to the politicizing and complaining that is being done on the heels of this catastrophe. The hurricane was not the fault of Governor Barbour; it was not the fault of President Bush; it was not caused by manmade global warming; and there is no organization on the planet that can cope with a disaster of this magnitude. The problem is, the worst is yet to come. There will be agonizing delays on every front, and once the mold takes hold, there will also be wide scale sickness and condemnation of buildings that made it through the storm. There will be large scale fraud and attempts by insurance companies not to pay claims. We in Florida have seen it all.

Even though I condemn the backbiting, there is one area that cries out for coverage: the inexcusable gasoline shortages and price increases. The Democratic Party has shut off drilling for new oil supplies; and now they want price controls that will shut everything down. They have stopped us from drilling in Anwar and in the Gulf of Mexico; they have stopped the building of new refineries; now, in the midst of further shortages created by Hurricane Katrina, Senator Nelson (D,FL) is raising alarms about new drilling. He is more concerned that the crisis might open some people’s eyes as to the terrible position in which Democrat policies have placed the ordinary people of this country, than he is about people’s needs, some of whom could not even get gasoline to escape the destruction of Katrina.

As far as price controls are concerned, they have never worked. The supplies of everything always dry up, and black markets immediately appear. The ignorance of economics and history of those on the left is truly astonishing. We need to license and build more refineries, none of which have been built in 30 years; and we need to drill for domestic supplies of crude oil immediately in Anwar and in the Gulf of Mexico. Conservation is also required, but growth and jobs come from an adequate supply of energy. If Katrina forces an urgent, emergency program to open up more oil and gasoline supplies, some good will come of it.