Congress has pulled a “Fred Goff.”

Let me explain what that means.

About 1000 of my fellow junior high students were gathered in the auditorium listening to our principal. He called for a moment of silence. Fred tipped to one side and let out a trumpet-like sound that rocketed around the auditorium.

Fred instantly turned to the boy next to him and reared back as if the kid was radioactive. All eyes fell on the kid and all hell broke loose. The kid was yanked out of his seat, marched to the principal’s office and forever branded. Fred escaped.

Congress has just done this with our gas and oil problems.

The high prices are being trumpeted all over the country. The blame for them is, above all, Congress’s. Yet Congress stuck the blame on the oil companies. It Goffed big oil.

It dragged big oil executives before its committees. So that congressguys could line up before the cameras to jab fingers at them.. They lashed out at them for our high gas and heating oil prices. They called them greedy. They threatened windfall profit taxes. They demanded the companies do all sorts of loony things.

They were as dishonest as ol’ Fred. And their hot air had the same fragrance as his.

No group of people have pushed up the price of your fuels more than Congress.

By not allowing more modern refineries, Congress has denied the industry various efficiencies. We have not had a new refinery built in America for over 30 years. The limits on our refining have nudged our prices higher.

By halting drilling in non-park federal lands, Congress has brought higher prices. By prohibiting more drilling in federal lands in Alaska it has pushed gas prices upward. By keeping drillers from tapping oil off our coasts Congress has added to gas prices. By keeping oil companies from converting oil shale it has made sure gas prices rise.