Season is now for more pain

A slender Santa approaches, and Big Oil producers stand on notice: they’ve been profitable and therefore naughty, and now they must pay. Among the economic meltdown’s rare gifts have been plunging oil and gas prices. Americans should enjoy this development while it lasts, and so too prices for electricity and natural gas that wear the strange look of reasonability. President-elect Obama, exchanging a musty red suit for a tailored dark one, means to end all of this. He comes bearing gifts, cap-and-trades and tax-break rollbacks, both of which are fashionable but will prove expensive.

Gliding toward Pennsylvania Avenue, jolly young St. Barack totes a bag full of policy changes and a mission. Call it the Obama Two-Step. First, according to his Web site, “make dirty energy expensive.” Then, pour “$150 billion over the next decade ... [into] the deployment of clean, affordable energy.” For the moment, let’s consider the cleansing. How to do it? On Planet Obama, by applying toxins and a stiff wire brush to the backs of consumers.

It starts, naturally, with oil. Experts expect the elimination of a 2-percent tax cut extended as part of a jobs bill to Big Oil in 2004. This equates to a tax increase and others are likely. Oil companies, for whom we feel no particular sympathy, will not merely absorb higher levies but will pass the costs to consumers. This means gas prices will be higher. Meanwhile, the offshore drilling calls that rang out across the land over the summer have fallen silent, and Obama hears this. Here, a pattern resurfaces, circuitously. Prices rise, rationalists call for drilling, leftists say capturing the oil would take too long to make a difference, prices fall, the calls for drilling fade, prices rise and, well, here we go again.

And Obama moves on. Next comes cap-and-trade. Here’s how it works. Federal law places a cap on carbon dioxide emissions, which Obama and his leftist allies want to slash by 80 percent over 40 years. Companies that emit fewer carbons than allowed under the cap build credits, which then may be sold to companies that pollute more heavily. This is the trade. Hearing some economists chatter, one may wonder what could be the matter.

Here’s the answer. Coal’s critics hope to drive that industry to the brink and consumers to natural gas. So? Investor’s Business Daily refers to America as the “Saudi Arabia of coal” with a supply of 489 billion short tons. Natural gas production, conversely, has been flat since the start of the decade despite increased demand, which in economic laws of logic as opposed to federal laws of illogic translates to soaring prices.

What then is the end of the means? Consumers’ stockings will not sag with lumps of the dread black rocks after all, but will be stuffed instead with the prospects of inflated utility bills. Obama has made his list, checked it twice and ensured that all will feel the bitter sting of federal benevolence. There will, alas, be nothing good in this hurt.

Good luck, Hornets

When the Wilson Memorial High School volleyball team plays Strasburg today in the Group A semifinals in Richmond, it will be about so much more than sports. To this group of 10 girls and Kim Claytor — their fiery coach – winning it all is important. But so is staying together for as long as they can.

It’s not just a team on the volleyball court in Fishersville, it’s a family. It’s a coach who says the kids are like her own and seven seniors and three juniors wanting the ride to last. Sadly, it’s going to end this weekend no matter what. The Green Hornets could lose tonight. They could lose Saturday in the championship match. Or they could win the whole darned thing.

The end match is never fun, but raising a little bit of hardware over your head afterward always makes losing a part of your family easier. Good luck, girls. You’ve already made Augusta County proud.