To: American Spirit who wrote (138568 ) 4/15/2001 4:47:52 PM From: hmaly Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 769667 from American Spirit Re...Bush for higher prices, more consumption, less efficiency AND more pollution. <<< Any fool would know that higher prices force conservation. If GW can have both higher prices, and more consumption, he is one hell of a lot smarter than either you or I. <<The S+L debacle was created right after RR won and we had the exact same type of collusion and soft money in the Administration, the foxes running the chicken coop>.. Nice revisionist history, but the S + L debacle was started many yrs before Reagon, by the high marginal tax rates and the tax breaks given to REITS, which encouraged waste and overbuilding, much as the NAZ fall was largely due to investor stupidity, and overconfidence in the magic of the internet. Reagon only did away with the stupid tax breaks which made the REITS possible. It is happening again with energy and will cost us all dearly. <<<<< Yes energy will cost us dearly. It was the refusal to allow more drilling and electricity power plants through the NIMBY policy; plus a wrongheaded conservation only policy by the environmentalists,(as if the people in Uganda, harm their environment less than we do); which has gotten us into this mess. Now we must come up with our own sources of energy. But we should consider that OPEC actually will be doing us a favor if we can come up with our own sources of energy or conservation, if we can be be energy independent within 75 yrs. I think it can be done, but it won't be cheap, or easy. And it won't be done with either conservation, or increased energy sources alone,but a combination of both.