Mark Davis has made some very logical comments regarding the role of government and high oil prices in his latest article. I’ve highlighted what I believe to be the most valid points:

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Instability in oil-producing nations boosts world oil prices; stability brings them down. The best thing we can do to bring about that stability is to win the war. I’d hate to get in the way of scornful ex-generals tripping over each other in airports during their book tours, but if we could direct our energies toward supporting the war we’re in, we might have a better chance of prevailing and seeing that stability unfold.

That will take years, but so will every other substantive thing that will bring prices down. If Congress had allowed the Alaskan drilling President Bush started asking for five years ago, oil from that sliver of land might be hitting the pipelines right now.

Imagine that. More American oil. We have whined for decades about relying too much on foreign oil, yet we have never seen a major public outcry for environmental extremists to get out of the way so that we can drill and refine more of our own oil and import less from countries that want to kill us.

No new refineries in America in more than three decades. That track record of obstruction, thanks mostly but not totally to Democrats, has done more to keep our oil prices high than any Republican coziness with big oil

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Through our behavior in the marketplace, we will let it be known how much we will pay for gas and how much of it we wish to use. Let’s stop these useless cries for Congress to “do something.” Government doesn’t need to do more; it needs to do less.

Elected officials need to drop the obstacles to domestic production, lose their fetish for forcing additives like MTBE and ethanol, and stop wasting our time grandstanding about investigating and punishing oil companies just to get underinformed heads to nod.