The Washington Post is reporting on the plan unveiled yesterday by Senate Democrats that they hope will lower gas prices.

The legislation, dubbed the Consumers First Energy Act, features a 25 percent windfall profits tax on oil companies operating in the United States, a rollback of existing tax breaks for oil and gas companies worth $17 billion over 10 years, and an authorization for the U.S. attorney general to bring price collusion charges against OPEC members. ...

But William L. Kovacs, vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the Democrats' package could "have unintended consequences" for U.S. companies doing business in Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries. And Chas W. Freeman, former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, criticized the idea of prosecuting OPEC countries, an idea also supported by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) on the presidential campaign trail.

"It would probably result in OPEC dumping the dollar as the unit of account for the oil trade and throw the dollar into a collapse," he said. "It could well produce an oil embargo and much higher prices. And it would have no support internationally, where it would be seen as the epitome of unilateralism that people criticize the Bush administration for."

Do liberals in the Senate really believe that increasing taxes and targeting producers of oil will lower the price of gas?  Raising taxes on oil companies will likely be passed on to consumers at the pump, and will result in reduced investment in the U.S. energy infrastructure and limit further exploration into alternative fuel sources - meaning the higher prices would become permanent.  Rather than risking an embargo by targeting foreign sources of oil, the Senate should focus on increasing our domestic energy supply.  By targeting OPEC in this way, Senate liberals have thrown in the towel on energy independence.  Their plan would no doubt be a disaster for our economy and foreign policy.