Our energy mispolicy

If you can make sense of our energy policy, let me know - I'm more and more baffled.

We don't think twice when China starts to search for oil off the coast of Cuba, pretty close to US shores. We won't let additional American drilling happen on the same continental shelf.

One of the reasons gasoline prices have risen in the US is because gasoline sold here has to be refined in such a way as to meet US pollution standards. To the best of my knowledge, only US refineries can produce such gasoline from crude oil. No new refineries have been built in the US for about 30 years. Want to guess why?

Although we keep hearing about Brazil's growing use of biofuels, the main thing Brazil has done to improve its energy situation is to allow off-shore oil drilling.

While almost all other wealthy countries have revved up their use of nuclear power, the US is still stuck somewhere around 1980 on this issue. The main hold-up is disposing of the waste. But it's not a technical problem, merely a political one (i.e., Harry Reid).

Congress wants lower energy prices - so they say - but they will do nothing that would allow such an outcome. Instead, they talk about suing OPEC (!) and absurd "carbon caps" to stop the non-existent crisis of "global warming." They refuse to do anything to ease restrictions on coal-to-gasoline conversion, although the process continues to be greatly improved in both efficiency and cleanness.

Is the United States still a serious country?