RIGONOMICS:

Last month I wrote about my first $4 gallon of gas. I yearn for those days after paying $4.59 a gallon this week. We need to solve the energy crisis in this country, but we are never going to do it, if our national leaders say it cannot be done — so why even try? The economy will only get worse if Americans do not have any money left in their wallets after they fill up their tanks.

There is such a defeatist attitude on the left that no matter what we try to do to solve our energy problem, they say it either can’t be done or that it will take too long. This reiterates my point about our acting like children. Children do not understand delayed gratification; they need the fix now, and if it cannot be fixed immediately, they just do nothing and stomp their feet. Adults understand that sometimes it takes time to do the right thing.

The left’s latest example of foot stomping came after President George W. Bush stated that we should end the 27-year ban on offshore drilling in the U.S. Immediately the left, including democratic nominee Barack Obama, attacked the plan saying it would take 22 years to get any benefit out of offshore drilling.

Obama is preaching to the children on the left, arguing not to do anything to produce more oil because it would take too long. Sorry, kids: I cannot lower the price at the pump with new supply this week, so let’s just punish the big bad oil companies with a windfall profits tax.

First off, where does he get his facts? Does the American public really think it takes 22 years to drill an oil well? Even with all the bureaucratic paper work involved I think we could drill a well in say, a year or two. But according to Obama, why try at all? It will simply take too long.

When Bush also said we should build nuclear power plants, GOP nominee John McCain agreed and added that he proposes we build 100 nuclear power plants with 45 in operation by the year 2030. McCain’s plan, like JFK’s 1961 speech to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, was a challenge to the nation to do whatever it takes to reach our goal. In this case, reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

The left loves alternative fuels like corn-based ethanol. The only problem is that it doesn’t work. It takes more energy to produce corned-based ethanol than the energy it produces. That’s why U.S. taxpayers subsidized ethanol 50 cents a gallon when gas was $1.80 a gallon, and we still subsidized it 50 cents a gallon when gas is $4.50.

Ethanol is just a way to send billions of dollars to farmers in the Midwest. Sugar is five to six times more efficient to make ethanol out of than corn, but until they find a way to grow sugar cane in Iowa, there won’t be any political will. In fact, we add a tariff on any sugar-based ethanol that comes into the country to make it uneconomical. I guess it is better to buy oil from Middle East dictators than hurt the profit margins of agribusiness.

I am all for getting off our oil dependency, but we need to be realistic. First things first: We do not need to bankrupt every American family because they cannot afford to put gas in their car. The price of oil at more than $134 per barrel is a bubble about to burst. The sooner the leadership in the country acts to produce more oil, remove tariffs on sugar-based ethanol and approve nuclear power plants in a timely fashion, the sooner that bubble will burst and we will see oil back in the sub $80 per barrel range, which would put gas back at $2.70 per gallon.

The American public will support leaders who want to solve problems and not just give it lip service. At $4.50 a gallon, their patience is running out.

JIM RIGHEIMER is a Costa Mesa planning commissioner, a local developer and a GOP activist.