Oil Paranoia
By Robert D. Novak

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, back from the Fourth of July break, last week delivered a typical harangue on Republican obstructionism and Democratic virtue that included a promise: By week’s end, he would show Republicans his proposal to deal with “this speculation thing” that he calls the root cause of $4-a-gallon gasoline. It would attempt “to end speculation on the oil markets.” By week’s end Friday, Republicans had seen nothing of Reid’s plan because of internal Democratic disagreement on details. After consulting a wide variety of experts on both energy and markets, I could find nobody who sees speculation as a major contributor to the oil spike.