Texas Rep. Ralph Hall Doesn't Understand Anger Felt Against Oil Companies

According to CNN, the Democratically controlled House of Representatives approved $16 billion in taxes on oil companies and tax breaks and incentives for renewable energy and convservation efforts.

"We are turning to the future," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Republican members obviously whined against this bill, prompting Ralph Hall, R-Texas to claim, "I can't understand the pure venom felt against the oil and gas industry."

According to his website this leader represents the fourth district in Texas, which includes Rockwall, McKinney and New Boston, Tx.

I would suggest to Rep. Hall that if he doesn't get it, then it's high time he better start to try. Consumers are paying $3.00/gallon for gasoline and oil companies are making embarassing profits. If that's not enough, and it really isn't, we are ruining our world to continue to burn fossil fuels, and it is causing us to have to fight an expensive and senseless was in Iraq to ensure our supply of oil.

And there's more.

Let's hear from former James Woolsey, the CIA Director under former President Clinton, from an interview earlier this year published in Motor Trend Magazine.

It's a bad thing for transport to depend on oil when the great majority of that oil lies in volatile parts of the world whose governments are hostile to the West. Moreover, he argues that, by making the Middle East so wealthy, we're indirectly subsidizing terror. For Woolsey, the cash register at your local gas station is a collection box for Al Qaeda. "We're paying for both sides in this war, and that's not a good long-term strategy," he says. "I have a bumper sticker on the back of my Prius that reads, 'Bin Laden hates this car.'"

If a former CIA Director understands this issue, why doesn't a sitting Representative get it?

That's what I don't understand.