Government meddling with the free-market forces can have ill consequences. Just look at how government mandates for corn-based ethanol have affected the global food supply.
According to CNN senior business correspondent Ali Velshi, CNN viewers rate the economy as the most important issue and named gas prices as their number one concern. "AOL Money Coach" Hilary Kramer agreed with viewers, but regarded Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama's proposal as "valuable" when matched with alternative energy legislation.
"Absolutely right," Kramer said on CNN's May 5 "Issue #1." "That's why Barack Obama with a $150 billion package that he wants to jumpstart an entire industry alternative energy and clean technology could be very valuable, especially matching that up with legislation to force the use of alternative energy."
Nothing detailed in Obama's plan has any short-term answers to higher gas prices and assumes the only solution is alternative energy and ignores the other proposals.
Legislation introduced May 1 by Senate Republicans would open the Atlantic and Pacific regions of the Outer Continental Shelf and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain for oil exploration, grant the EPA authority to permit new refineries and suspend filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for 180 days. Those solutions are often ignored by the media and politicians as they consider "alternative energy" the only fix for high gas prices.
