Important lesson not learned after Hurricane Katrina

Build more refineries, including some in parts of the country that don't get hurricanes.

(I don't feel better knowing this lesson was lost on Canada, too.)

Meh.

I would like to be excited about the Executive Order forbidding offshore drilling being rescinded, but a) no way in Hell is Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid going to sponsor a Congressional version of the same and b) President Big O is just going to sign another one in January.

Why on Earth no one thought of this when gas first hit $3 after Hurricane Katrina and Congress wasn't veto-proof...

How did this get in the paper?

The hoi polloi aren't supposed to know that their pockets are getting picked for no actual benefit...

Motorists in southeastern Wisconsin pay an average of 14 cents more a gallon for gasoline billed as cleaner for the environment, but the government and air quality experts now question how much the gas actually cuts pollution.

The article is written to obfuscate the 'science'--you have to get all the way to the end to learn that the models they're using to justify special formulations have been proven incorrect--and they've got the requisite evil capitalist who "doesn't care about clean lungs" scare verbiage *snort*, but there's a seed of doubt planted about Totalitarian Green Government Saving The Planet.

Isn't there an editorial oversight board to keep this from happening?

Good news, everyone!

This refinery is one of two or three (I can't remember exactly) that produces the odd formulation for SE Wisconsin.

WHITING, Ind. -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved the final state permit that BP needed to start work on the expansion of its oil refinery along Lake Michigan.

Wackos' efforts to derail the much-needed expansion remain undeterred.

(Read that title in a Professor Farnsworth voice for best effect.)

Gas taxes

This is interesting.

Gas prices soar, WI Gov Doyle seeks to raise state gas tax, claims it's not really a gas tax.

Gas prices soar, IN Gov Daniels refuses to suspend state gas tax as Democrats urge.

I don't really know how to analyze these, since I lack the economics background. I do note that gas in Indiana is taxed at 6% + $0.18/gal, so around $0.38/gallon at $3.40/gal, and the gas tax in WI is $0.33/gal regardless of price and expected to go up to around $0.40/gal. From a consumer standpoint, the flat-rate tax per gallon is much easier to not notice as prices fluctuate. And it seems counterproductive to "combatting high prices" to seek to limit the amount of gasoline a company brings into a state--something economists understood in the 18th century and Democrats can't figure out (or willfully ignore) today.

What I can analyze is that neither of these policies are really about "helping citizens." In Indiana, the Dems hate Daniels so they're toying with a visible small issue to make him look bad; in Wisconsin the Dems are exploiting the "ZOMG! Companies make profits and that's wrong!" fears and resentments of people who don't understand math and don't like people making more money than they do.

But I find the regional differences in strategy--more taxes! Less taxes!--interesting. Just like it interests me that an Indiana Democrat would probably be cast as a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal right-winger on either coast. :)