Increasing our dependence on foreign oil

This is just the sort of stupefying GOP lunacy that makes me think their days are numbered (assuming the press ever gets word of this to the public). Normally known as the party of hawkish isolationism, pragmatism, and motivated self-interest, congressional Republicans have decided to go against all that and continue to do the bidding of big oil.

In light of the new concern in the scientific community that global warming is worse than previously thought, record prices at the gas pumps, an auto industry that's still pushing gas-guzzling polluters (and losing market share to popular hybrid imports), increased demand from India and China that will continue to drive up oil prices, and the dangerous policy of depending on oil from Middle Eastern states that support terorrism, Congressional Republicans have decided to take their million bucks a year from big oil, and leave the rest of us to fend for ourselves. After all, if you can't afford a tank of gas, it's because God thinks you don't deserve it.

Working furiously to try to strike a deal on broad energy legislation, Congressional negotiators on Monday killed two major provisions aimed at curbing consumption of traditional fossil fuels like oil, natural gas and coal.

House members rejected an effort to incorporate a plan passed by the Senate to require utilities to use more renewable energy like wind and solar power to generate electricity. They also defeated a bid to direct the president to find ways to cut the nation's appetite for oil by one million barrels a day.