As more and more Americans feel the pinch at the pumps, our presidential candidates have turned their focus onto a new Energy Policy for the U.S.     Sen. John McCain has offered us several quick solutions.    He wants a gas tax holiday and he wants to open up off-shore drilling.   (Which he has opposed in Washington for the last 30 years.  We’ll leave the flip-flopper argument to another time.)

But what REALLY causes such high prices?   It isn’t any one thing but a combination of factors that increase oil prices.    Supply & Demand is an important part of this.    More and more nations are using more and more oil which means we have to out bid other countries to purchase oil.   The dollars we use to purchase oil with are worth less today than they were a year ago and that drives up the price.   And finally, oil speculators have artificially inflated the price due to a lack of regulation on their practices.

Today, Sen. McCain was scheduled to go to New Orleans to visit an off-shore rig for a great photo op showing how off-shore drilling will solve our high gas prices.     Unfortunately it was cancelled due to weather.     After all, a hurricane went through the Gulf yesterday.    Nobody can expect to fly over the gulf today.   Except, the weather in New Orleans today was hot and clear.   Four mile per hour winds with a ten mile visibility limit.    Seems like today’s weather shouldn’t be a problem for helicopters.  

Maybe it wasn’t the weather, maybe he cancelled because at 1:30 AM yesterday the AP reports:

“ NEW ORLEANS — The Coast Guard closed 29 miles of the Mississippi River at New Orleans after a 600-foot tanker and a barge loaded with fuel oil collided Wednesday, breaking the barge in half.

Nobody was injured, but more than 419,000 gallons of heavy, almost tar-like fuel oil spilled from the barge, forming a slick 12 miles long, said Lt. Cdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau, a Coast Guard spokeswoman.”     (Note:   That slick is now 100 miles long and growing.)