Gasoline is too cheap for national security

OK, so Joe Manchin says we must develop alternate sources of energy so we can stop importing so much oil. No problem there. He mentions corn. Eh, a bit of a problem, considering the energy in-energy out ration when it comes to converting corn to ethanol, not to mention what that would do to food prices.

Down in the story, on the jump page in the print version, is this paragraph:

Gov. Brian Schweitzer, D-Mont., said Congress and the Bush administration should consider setting a minimum price for domestic fuels to provide market stability. Schweitzer said financial institutions and Wall Street investors would be reluctant to provide capital needed to expand production of U.S. fuels if foreign competitors are able to drive down market prices to undercut U.S. producers.

In other words, oil is too cheap now. It's too cheap for energy producers to consider anything other than crude oil for making liquid fuel.

Last summer, gasoline hit $3 a gallon. Then you heard all this talk about alternate fuels, and the retail price of gasoline dropped.

With all due respect to Gov. Schweitzer, I wouldn't want to be the governor or the Congressman who tells the American people that we need -- somehow -- to increase the retail price of gasoline to $4 or $5 a gallon so we can develop alternate fuels in the name of national security. I would love to hear the barbershop conversation the day after that trial balloon floats.