Americans silent over gas prices

Remember back in 2000, when Americans were screaming bloody murder over gas prices?

Here's Joseph Farah of World Nut Daily on June 27, 2000:

Here are some more facts: The cost of crude oil 18 months ago was $10 a barrel. It is in excess of $30 today. Because we as a nation have grown more dependent on foreign oil, we are paying the inevitably higher prices that follow such political irresponsibility.

So, let's figure this out: Retail marketing costs for gasoline are about 15 percent. Federal excise taxes are about 17 percent. Then the Clinton administration comes along and decides it's best for our nation if we produce less oil and grow more dependent.

Sixty percent of federal land is now off limits to oil drilling. Offshore the situation is even more restrictive. Forty-three million acres of federal land is off limits even to road building, which means you can't even think about drilling.

On top of all that, it is the Clinton-Gore Environmental Protection Agency that has imposed tough new blended-gas regulations that added 25 cents to the cost of a gallon of gas.

What's Gore's latest response? As gasoline prices and frustration at the pumps soar, he unveils a Carteresque multibillion-dollar national energy strategy that includes a proposal for weaning America off its reliance on foreign oil with tax incentives for building and buying energy-saving products.

That's what I would call way too little, way too late.

Let's fast-forward now, shall we?

Today is August 13, 2005. Oil is at $67 a barrel. Average pump price nationwide is $2.41. And Bush just signed a so-called "energy bill", about which he said:

...the bill I sign today will help diversify our energy supply by promoting alternative and renewable energy sources. The bill extends tax credits for wind, biomass, landfill gas and other renewable electricity sources. The bill offers new incentives to promote clean, renewable geothermal energy. It creates a new tax credit for residential solar power systems. And by developing these innovative technologies, we can keep the lights running while protecting the environment and using energy produced right here at home. When you hear us talking about less dependence on foreign sources of energy, one of the ways to become less dependent is to enhance the use of renewable sources of energy.

Joseph Farah is curiously silent. And so are the same Americans who were screaming bloody murder when they were paying a buck and a quarter during the Clinton years.