Each summer the ancient Greeks would sacrifice a brown dog to appease Sirius, the Dog Star, believing it to be the source of the hot, oppressive weather. Known as caniculares dies or “days of the dogs,” high summer was thought to be a time of evil when the “seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies” (Brady’s Clavis Calendarium, 1813).
Though animal sacrifices to imaginary gods are no longer in vogue, it seems we are still prone to blaming far-away stars for our troubles. The pains of the current energy shortage have been attributed to OPEC, international futures traders who conspired to drive up oil prices, and foreign forces driving down the U.S. dollar.
The true cause of our decline can be found much closer to home: in the stagnating halls of Congress. Our Legislators have failed to open domestic lands and seas to energy exploration, drilling, and new refineries and so billions of barrels of domestic oil are being kept off the market. As a result, gas has now reached $5 a gallon in some parts of the country.
Arguments that it would take ten years to bring new supplies online sound hauntingly familiar. Hm… Oh yes: it’s exactly what was said ten years ago when the nation last debated this issue. The short-term thinkers won the last round; will they do so again now?
Critics also argue that we should be focusing on renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and bio-fuels. Fine, yes, good. But solar power and windmills can’t take the place of oil in the U.S. economy, and the ”encouragement” (mandates and massive subsides) of bio-fuels has driven up food prices so that we are now paying more at the grocery store as well as the gas station.
Increased domestic oil production is part of the answer. Our technology enables us to drill with very little impact on the environment (and certainly in more ecologically friendly ways than many of the nations from whom we’re currently buying oil). Let’s do it, then, while also developing techonologies that might one day enable us to power our nation without oil.
As for the cap-and-trade and windfall profits tax bills the Democrats tried to push through the Senate, we can thank our lucky stars they didn’t pass. What worries me is what may happen when the dog days of summer are gone and the cool winds of November come a blowin’.
If the GOP loses contested Senate seats and we elect a president who favors the artificial rationing of energy despite current shortages and high prices, we may well find ourselves wishing on a star for the good ol’ days of $5 a gallon gas.
