It’s good to know that Congress is taking this crisis of choice seriously. Thanks to this article, I now know that Congress is working on legislation to ensure that the oil market won’t be manipulated:

“When I brought that up to the commodities traders and told them that was the same thing that Exxon had said, the same thing that the OPEC secretary-general had said, the same thing that many of us are asking the questions on, they said, well they’re all wrong and we’re right,” commented Walz.

Walz says Congress is working on several proposals to make sure prices are not manipulated.

It’s nice knowing that “Congress is working on several proposals to make sure prices are not manipulated” but what are they doing to increase energy supplies? Does Rep. Walz and other Democrats realize that speculators only influence markets when there’s a shortage of whatever commodity happens to be trading?

I wrote that speculators weren’t important when oil traded for $20/bbl because the world was producing 9 million more bbl/daily than they consumed. That cushion is now approximately 1 million/bbl daily. Rather than attribute high gas prices on the greed of Big Oil or speculators, perhaps Democrats should admit that rising demand and flatlining supplies are what’s causing this price spike. Of course, they’d likely need to attend Econ 101 to learn about basic market principles, something that they’re either unwilling to accept or are unwilling to admit in public.

It’s irritating that Democrats skirt the issue instead of providing real solutions. It’s time that they either led, followed or got the hell out of the way before this economy sinks.

Technorati Tags: Tim Walz, Gas Crisis, Speculators, Supply And Demand, OPEC, Big Oil

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog