America must learn to love dearer petrol

Ask the wrong question, and you get the wrong answer. The question being asked by Hillary Clinton and John McCain – and that covers just about the entire political spectrum – is, “How can we lower petrol prices?”

Their answer: reduce the federal tax of about 18 cents per gallon. The reasons that is exactly the wrong policy are too many to list here. One is that oil producers, or oil companies, or service-station operators would raise prices by an equivalent amount. But give the pandering pols the benefit of the doubt, and assume that prices would go down. The right question is: “Is it a good idea to lower petrol prices?” The right answer is “no”.
Sunday Times