The Iran war didn't make your heating bill this high. Blue-state energy policy did

Heating season is here, and the Iran war is getting the blame for higher energy prices .

The war explains the timing.

It doesn't explain the vulnerability.

America produces enormous amounts of oil and gas.

Why do prices jump when the Persian Gulf flares? Because oil trades on a world market.

A crisis anywhere moves prices everywhere.

But the real problem is policies at the state level that have kept us from truly unleashing the bounty of our domestic energy supply.

CHEVRON CEO WARNS IRAN CONFLICT HAS CREATED 'VERY REAL' THREAT TO GLOBAL OIL SUPPLIES AS GAS PRICES CLIMB It’s been well-documented that we have a refinery shortage.

The country has 130 operable refineries, down from 301 in 1982, and no major new refinery has been built in the U.S. since 1976.

Here in the Northeast, when we lost the Philadelphia Energy Solutions plant, we lost about 335,000 barrels a day.

In my home state of New York, like so many other states, we also have a self-imposed supply problem.

Natural gas moves through pipelines, and New York has blocked those pipelines.

Pennsylvania, right next door, sits on some of the richest gas fields in the country.

The Constitution Pipeline, if constructed, would carry that natural gas 124 miles, with 99 miles of new right-of-way in New York.