I like John Edwards, and I've given him money (I've also given to Dodd, but to no one else). But today he released a plan to help New Englanders New Hampshire primary voters with their home heating costs this winter that is misguided in a number of ways. Unfortunately, while it has its good points, the main thrust of it is just pandering, and it's bad policy to boot. Even candidates I like and end up voting for tend to pander to Iowans and New Hampshire residents, but certain kinds of pandering are just destructive.
Americans need to be told that high oil prices are not just a temporary aberration caused by a nefarious plot by Big Oil. High oil prices are not going away, and temporary measures like emptying the strategic petroleum reserve are not prudent policy, and would damage the country in the long run. Squeezing the oil companies goes only so far when oil is $100/barrel.
When Edwards says "New England families are facing skyrocketing home heating oil and gasoline prices – all to fuel massive profits for Big Oil", he's wrong. It is true that the high oil prices are giving the oil companies record profits, but even if those profits were reduced to zero oil would still be more than double what it was a couple of years ago. New England's real problem is that so many there rely on oil heat to get them through the winter.
The statement says "Edwards will also stand up to the oil and gas industry to bring down unreasonable prices.". Forget it. The prices aren't coming down. More competition and transparency could reduce Big Oil's profits, but the dwindling supply of oil will assure that prices are not coming down. Besides, Europeans have been paying more than we are paying and have been doing so for years.
If we empty the petroleum reserve this winter, and then Bush manages to start a war with Iran and the Strait of Hormuz gets blocked, we'll be nostalgically looking back on the days of $100/barrel oil and we'll be cursing anyone who released oil just before election day to help assure a victory for their side. We need the reserve for a true crisis; high prices at a time when we expect even higher prices in the future isn't a crisis.
Yes, we need to help the poor stay warm, and give them financial aid to do so. But for the rest of us, carbon-based fuels need to become more expensive, not less; carbon taxes can be offset with reductions in other taxes. That will mean that life will get much more expensive for the guy who commutes 75 miles each way, alone, in a big honking truck. Sorry.
Now, there are things in the Edwards plan that I do support. It's ridiculous that Big Oil gets the subsidies they do, and they should pay more for extraction on public lands. Reversing "Enron-era deregulation" needs to happen, urgently. And he's right that we should fully fund the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
But the pandering must stop. John Edwards is not going to bring back cheap oil, and he should not pretend otherwise.