NY Times on foreign fuel subsidies

Today's New York Times has a great article on how governments in several developing nations subsidize the cost of gas and diesel for their citizens, which means that individuals and businesses in China, India, Indonesia, etc., aren't paying for their gas what we pay. The increased demand from what we used to refer to as Third World countries is a major reason that oil prices have risen so much in the last year or two.

Remember how, when gas was $2 or so a gallon here in the U.S., everybody drove giant SUVs the half mile to the grocery store instead of walking, made fun of Al Gore and just in general acted as if we had zero incentive to use less oil? Well, that's kind of where Indonesia is right now. And they're not going to start conserving oil just because the U.S. asks them nicely, either. Why would they? It's not like we ever did the same for them.

While we're on the subject, I have a question about off-shore drilling, of which Sen. John McCain is suddenly a fan. First of all, energy companies apparently aren't even using all of the leases they have available to them (way to keep the market tight, fellas). Isn't it a little silly to act like you're starved, at capacity, whatever, when you're not even drilling in all of the places you've been told you can drill? Second, even if we were magically able to extract every drop of oil in the U.S., it would take years to refine it and get it to your local gas station. Which brings me to my question...Oil that's drilled in a U.S. territory doesn't belong to the U.S. It belongs to Exxon BP Mobil Shell, and they can sell it to whomever they feel like selling it to. What on Earth makes McCain or anyone else think that any of the prospective oil under the Pacific is actually going to stay in this country?

I have a much better idea. Let China have the stuff. We're the wealthiest, and at least we used to be the most advanced nation on the planet. How about, instead of continuing to devote resources to a fuel that's expensive, polluting, primitive and that we can't get to without destroying large chunks of our ecosystem, let's just look into something else. C'mon, we put human beings on the moon for crying out loud. We can handle this.