Along with "fivedollaragallongas," the energy watchword for the next few months is: "subsidies." Last week, for instance, New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez
proposed ending some of the billions of dollars in handouts enjoyed by the fossil-fuel industry with a "Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act." It was, in truth, nothing to write home aboutâ€"a curiously skimpy bill that only targeted oil companies, and just the five richest of them at that. Left out were coal and natural gas, and you won't be surprised to learn that even then it
didn't pass.
Still, President Obama is now
calling for an end to oil subsidies at every stop on his early presidential-campaign-plus-fundraising blitzâ€"even at those stops where he's also promising to "drill everywhere."