Column: High gas prices? Bring 'em on!

Once again, gas prices are up — more than 30 cents over the past month. Some forecasters are predicting a price of $4.25 per gallon at the pump next month; others see it going up to $5 per gallon this summer.

And once again, the response is predictable, if not comical. The Republicans blame President Obama. They say that he blocked the Keystone XL pipeline and that he's secretly in favor of higher gas prices as a social engineering strategy designed to punish Americans into accepting alternative energy.

Obama blames Iran for disrupting oil supplies, sees growth in China and India as driving up oil consumption and, when asked whether he secretly favors price hikes, resorts to sarcasm to dismiss the accusation.

Me, I'm not running for office. I blame feckless politicians from both parties for the lack of a sane energy policy over the past 40 years. And unlike Obama or his Republican challengers, I want higher gas prices. At least for a while. Long enough for us to get the market signals right and to continue to wean ourselves off our fossil fuel addiction. Read More