Mark Steyn on the suing-OPEC bill

“[Then Congress] went off and passed by 324 to 82 votes the so-called NOPEC bill. The NOPEC bill is, in effect, a suit against OPEC, which, if I recall correctly, stands for the Oil Price-Exploiting Club. “No War For Oil!,” as the bumper stickers say. But a massive suit for oil — now that’s the American way! …

“Congress hauls Big Oil execs in for the dinner-theatre version of a Soviet show trial and then passes irrelevant poseur legislation like the NOPEC bill. Plus ca change you can believe in, plus c’est la meme chose. The NOPEC bill is really the NO PECS bill — a waste of photocopier paper passed by what C. S. Lewis called ‘men without chests’.” (“Fill Her Up with Hot Air”, National Review Online, May 24)(via Lindgren @ Volokh).

4 Comments

  • As I understand it, there is no shortage of oil. There is a shortage of gasoline. The Congress should sue itself. They blocked nuclear plants. They enabled regulations making it nearly impossible to build refineries. So, none has been built in decades. As the population increased, the shortage arose.

  • Too few people have studied or even read about economics until the last few years. Now that everyone is feeling the sting, perhaps the masses will wake up and start paying attention. If I were working at the Env. Def. Council, I would be quaking in my boots. Pretty soon people are going to get wise and figure out that it’s organizations such as this that are costing us money at the pumps. Refinery construction will resume in a few years after. Wait it out, buy some energy stocks, and tighten the belt a little.

  • So let me get this right? Oil prices are jumping and it is the oil companies that are at fault. I believe the envrionmental nazis and hippies are the main cause by preventing building of refineries and domestic drilling. And the last time I checked my Tax liability (personal property, income, state income, capital gains etc.) was 10 times what my gas bills are. Maybe The politicians should look in the mirror before they out the gougers.

  • Mario Cuomo dismantled a perfectly safe $5.5 billion nuclear plant at Shoreham, Long Island to placate his son’s crazy antinukers. And my beloved Democrats are stepping over each other for the prize of greatest fool of all time – Mr. Markey and Mr. Hall come to mind, what idiots!

    We really have to change our ways; peek oil hit the United States in the 1070’s and is hitting the world now. Representative Roscoe Bartlett beautifully explains the issues involved with Energy Policy. We can’t drill ourselves out of the problem, but misguided environmentalism also gets us off track.