March auto sales figures released Tuesday revealed that persistent $3-plus-a-gallon gas prices are having their effect on consumer choice, as cars outsold light trucks for the first time since March 2002. In other words, Americans are opting for vehicles with higher gas mileage (and by extension, lower CO2 output).
And yet House Democrats chose the very same day to haul five oil company executives before Ed Markey’s Select Committee and Energy Independence and Global Warming and denounce them for high gas prices. But shouldn’t a committee devoted to fighting oil independence and global warming welcome the conservation effects high prices are having? Shouldn’t Markey be demanding even higher gas prices?
The show hearings highlight the intellectual dishonesty of green politicians. Even their environmental group brethren, fearing public backlash, refuse to call for higher gas prices though they have proven to be the only solution to energy use (see Europe’s 15-percent gas-use decline over 30 years in the wake of tax-goosed, $7-a-gallon prices).
Instead, greens insist on backdoor taxes like CAFE standards that deliver sexy, business-bashing headlines but do little to change consumer behavior.
Reported the Wall Street Journal after yesterday’s hearings: “With voters fuming over rising fuel prices, Tuesday’s debate offered a new opportunity for Democrats to pummel the oil industry.”
Translation: Their constituents fear expensive energy, not global warming.