I’m glad someone is doing something to get Congress moving on oil speculation. Some analysts say it’s a problem with supply and demand and not speculation but every day you hear the price go up because of some news from Saudi Arabia or Iran, that’s speculation not demand. The airlines believe that $30 to $60 of the price is speculation. If that much is affected by speculation, then announcing that we are going to start to drill could mean an immediate drop in price.

Testifying before a Senate committee investigating the role of energy futures trading in fueling skyrocketing oil prices last month, the head of the Air Transport Association, James May, said the U.S. airline industry would spend $60 billion on fuel, $20 billion more than last year.
U.S. airlines “are on the brink of financial disaster – and some would say – about to implode,” May said. “High fuel prices are the sole reason,” he added.
“More than 14,000 airline jobs have been cut so far this year, and that it is just the tip of the iceberg,” the industry official said. “It is not unrealistic to think that by cutting capacity, more than 200 communities could lose all commercial air service by the end of next year.”

I wonder if the Democrats want to go down in history as being the reason the airline industry went under. Will the voters be thrilled to know that they sat by and did nothing while energy prices drove the airlines out of their local airport? They could alleviate this oil speculation by creating speculation limits and by opening up more land for drilling. The Republicans have been working with some Democrats craft a bill that would open up more land for drilling. Hopefully they will be able to bring it to the floor for a vote. If the airlines keep pushing their customers, maybe the pressure will move the bill along and the fact that 60% want drilling may encourage the Democrats to allow it to pass.
BTW, I bet Obama is going to start sounding like Durbin in the coming weeks 🙂 He’s on the wrong side of this issue and might want to move to the right on it like he did with some of the other important issues (FISA, gun laws, NAFTA, etc.).