When a person is addicted to crack cocaine, his problem is not that the price of crack is going up. His problem is what that crack addiction is doing to his whole body. The cure is not cheaper crack, which would only perpetuate the addiction and all the problems it is creating. The cure is to break the addiction.
Ditto for us. Our cure is not cheaper gasoline, but a clean energy system. And the key to building that is to keep the price of gasoline and coal — our crack — higher, not lower, so consumers are moved to break their addiction to these dirty fuels and inventors are moved to create clean alternatives.
Unfortunately, I think the democrats have to offer Americans a short-term solution, in addition to a long-term solution, even though there may not be a short-term solution other than cutting back on driving and becoming more frugal in other areas. Many Americans are hurting and they want the fix.
