How Oil Companies Use Their Profits Is Their Own Business
By David Holcberg (Irish Independent, May 6, 2006)

It is highly disingenuous for President Bush to call on oil companies to expand refining capacity, when environmental regulations enforced by his administration continue to make it extremely costly to open new refineries.

And it is totally inappropriate for the President to call on oil companies to invest in research of "alternative" energy--he doesn't own these companies and should not use his position to pressure them. What if oil companies judge that investing in the discovery of new oil deposits makes more sense than improving wind turbines?

In a free economy the government has an obligation to protect the right of businessmen to make their own decisions and to run their companies as they see fit. How energy companies want to use their profits is their own business--not the government's.