FAKE CONSERVATISM. Can there be anything more silly looking than the oil industry's bought-and-paid-for GOP servants in Congress and the White House pretending to crack down on alleged price-fixing in the oil industry? No doubt some of this is going on (probably at the level of retail gas stations rather than the big business end of the deal), but the whole thing is obviously a red herring to avoid the real questions in energy policy. Why, to take one, does the government dole out generous subsidies to an industry that's both profitable, bad for the environment, and increasingly bad for our foreign policy? Why not a windfall profits tax? For that matter, why not a real energy policy aimed at increasing fuel efficiency, decreasing reliance on oil as a fuel, and, for the long-run, decreasing overall dependence on cars? National Review at least has the courage of its convictions and says the government should do nothing, but the GOP doesn't really want to do anything; they're just playing make believe.
--Matthew Yglesias
