Energy Boom Threatens the Progressive Agenda

George Will writes "In 2011, for the first time in 62 years, America was a net exporter of petroleum products. For the indefinite future, a specter is haunting progressivism, the specter of abundance. Because progressivism exists to justify a few people bossing around most people and because progressives believe that only government’s energy should flow unimpeded, they crave energy scarcities as an excuse for rationing — by them — that produces ever-more-minute government supervision of Americans’ behavior."

The impending natural gas and oil boom will not be the end of progressives but it knock the props from under the justification for much of the liberal agenda. Scarcity brought the Department of Energy. It was sold as an impetus that would increase domestic energy but its effect, and maybe its true mission, has been to suppress energy production and attempt to replace the shortfall with a smorgasbord of costly and inefficient remedies such as corn ethanol, Solyndra, and the fire prone Chevy Volt. Mostly the left aside from attempting to control energy production, has attempted to restrict market freedom under the guise it's fighting an emergency. With the collapse of the global warming conference in Durban , South Africa and Canada's withdrawal from the Kyoto treaty the fear of carbon dioxide has abated in the publics' mind. Without the threats of global warming and an immediate energy shortage the left cannot point to any rationale for the policies that have become so dear to the progressive movement. Yes, Mr. President we can drive our SUV as much as we like and yes Mr. President we can keep our thermostats set to wherever we feel is comfortable. The United States leads the world in energy production who gives a damn about solar panels? Read the newspapers Mr. President natural gas prices are falling, petroleum fuel products are our number one export, and domestic energy extraction will soon make the country energy independent in spite of you and the left.