Against the-President-as-First-Responder-in-Chief

Paul Mirengoff lays out what is pretty close to my opinion on the matter of the oil spill and the President's proper role in the response.

What?!!?

Rush Limbaugh is talking about the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill the House passed last week. He has said that hidden within it is a nationwide home energy-efficiency standard for new buildings. One, that's unconstitutional. The Federal government can't legislate how you build your house, although your state can. Second, according to Rush, it is based on California's standards. That's to be expected, but those must be pretty stringent, considering the state's politics. That's an "ouch" in practical terms. Third, and here's where I want to check that Rush has his information straight, he thinks it would regulate the sale of inefficient homes in some way. Specifically, he said it would prohibit their sale, unless you upgraded the efficiency, although he said it was how he understood it, so he's not quite as sure as on the previous points.

What?! That's going to really, really come down hard. If this is true, I'm fighting it.

Obama is pro-inflation but anti-drilling

Dean Esmay does the math on Obama's inflate-your-tires energy plan and says they don't add up. There's some wiggle room in there for Obama, but you've got to give generous interpretations of his words, and even then it's not a practical solution.

One thing technocrats often miss is that they're dealing with live people in a society, and people have their own ideas about how they're going to live and what they're going to do. So while it's good advice to properly inflate your tires and keep the car in good working shape, and most people already do, you won't be able to force the remaining 27% of people (those driving around with seriously underinflated tires) to do your bidding. Maybe a major publicity campaign for inflated tires will reduce that percentage somewhat, but you will always, always have some percentage who won't take your advice. Maybe they're lazy. Maybe they don't have the time or money to go and get the car tuned up as often as you want them to. Maybe they don't want you telling them what to do. And so you won't get to that magical number you've cited for a goal. You won't equal even the predictions for oil from offshore drilling, much less from ANWR.

So: how about encouraging vehicle maintenance and expanding exploration and drilling? Offshore, ANWR, South Dakota, whereever! Put in new nuclear plants, windfarms, and even solar panels. The best of all worlds.