I got gas yesterday and it was painful. This is the most I've ever paid for regular. Soon we may get nostalgic for three dollar a gallon gas if Bush and Cheney attack Iran. Meanwhile heating the house this winter is going to entail chopping a lot of oak and feeding our wood stove. Oil is hitting $100/barrel on fears the United States is going to take military action against Iran and start World War III. The speculation is causing a steep rise in oil which we saw, literally, during our trip home from Boston last week.
On last Thursday we departed Medford, Massachusetts and filled up at $2.78. As we entered New York from Connecticut a few hours later it had risen to near $3/gallon. We got off at Poughkeepsie for dinner and all the stations were charging $3.05 so we got three gallons hoping it was one of the "close to the interstate" ripoffs. That got us to Mount Pocono and a Wawa where, again, it hovered around $3.00. At that point it was obvious we'd witnessed a startling rise in gas prices in just one day.
In the week since it's up to $3.10 a gallon and I've cut back severely on my driving. I'd already cut back because I'm having to save money for legal expenses but now I'm going to be staying home even more. Between the gas prices and cost of heating oil some people are going to have very difficult winters. Some will die. Some will have to make dire decisions between food and medicine or heat. This is part of the price we're paying for bad policy making. With foreign policy decisions driving up the costs of energy and no universal health care and no regulation of the food industry people are more at risk than ever.
So what is the solution for this at the White House? Another war of course. Now they're preparing to attack Iran based on the same lies and flimsy "evidence" that made Iraq such a success. BushCo says they don't need Congress' approval or permission to go to war regardless of what the constitution says. That's because George W. Bush and Dick Cheney refuse to even acknowledge we have one let alone abide by the document. They make their own rules, their own laws. They alone decide what is constitutional and what isn't.
They've decided they want another war. Say good bye to this cheap gas if that happens.
We need to support Dennis Kucinich and have a few people removed from office ASAP.
Posted by: veros | November 10, 2007 at 09:27 PM
Keep in mind that my friends in England and Japan tell me petrol (gas) there is at the equivalent to $9.00 a gallon. So...all things considered we still have it pretty easy.
Posted by: Kirk Wentzel | November 11, 2007 at 06:31 PM
Certainly Kirk. That was a surprisingly rapid increase in just one day however. Can someone provide a logical explanation as to why prices rise as soon as oil goes up but not decrease as fast when it goes down? I mean beyond the sheer greed of the oil companies....
Posted by: John Morgan | November 11, 2007 at 09:33 PM
Unfortunately.. $3.00/gal gas is probably here to stay. What we need to do now is start pushing for more fuel economic cars.
There's a reason (other than small streets) that SUVs are not as popular in Europe..
Posted by: Ed Oswald | November 12, 2007 at 12:04 AM
I agree with Ed that $3 today is here to stay. Kinda like the nostaglic days of $1 gas, we will look back and say I remember the good ole days when it was $3...
And I agree we need more fuel economic cars (my ram 1500 is killing me) but we also need to start drilling in areas to reduce our foreign dependency. With China and India growing and consuming more and more, we need to start using more of our reserves while coming up with alternative fuel sources.
I dont see ethanol being the solution...but we're still early in the game...in 20 years we may be at the point where we wonder why we used oil in the first place.
Posted by: tyler | November 13, 2007 at 02:09 PM
So we should just continue our addiction to oil by drilling more? Add more carbon dioxide to advance global warming even more? We're already feeling the definitive effects of climate change and your answer is to do more of the same?
It's time for radical change. A federal gas tax taking it to $5/gallon will rid us of your Ram 1500 and all the other gas guzzlers our men and women are dying to fill up by serving in Iraq. Aggressive tax credits for renewable energy and use of non polluting kinds like geothermal are urgently needed.
The answer is to STOP using carbon based energy. Each of us needs to stop driving huge vehicles, combine trips, car pool and start a massive mass transit system everyone will use similar to what Japan and Europe have.
Posted by: John Morgan | November 13, 2007 at 02:24 PM
John, you dont flip a switch and 'poof' everyone is using vehicles powered by a potato.
It takes time..so in the meantime, while alternative sources are being developed, we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by using our own supplies. We could use those reserves to lower the cost of heating peoples homes...and you couldnt be against that, could you John? :)
And when Al Gore, John Edwards, Barbara Streisand, et al stop living in 30K plus square foot houses that use more energy to heat/cool in a month than my Ram 1500 goes through in a year...when they stop flying around in private jets that burn HUGE amounts of fossil fuels...when they start living in two room apartment efficencies...
Then maybe, just maybe, I'll sell my truck. When Al Gore and Leo DiCaprio start walking to work...then I will too.
As you would call them...chickenhawks. Environmental chickenhawks. Won't put their money where their mouths are. Dont have the courage of their convictions. And dont give me the 'buying of carbon offsets' nonsense. It's just a way to try to deflect their utter and complete hypocracy.
Funny thing is that we agree about needing different sources...its how we get to the goal line we disagree with.
Plus, my truck was bought for a specific purpose...my wife is allergic to our dogs so we keep them in the back part when we take them with us...and when I go hunting, its easy to throw the deer right in the back rather than in the trunk of a car. Easier clean up. So while you see gas guzzler, I see a multi-purpose vehicle.
have a great day :)
Posted by: tyler | November 14, 2007 at 09:27 AM
My point is that using more heating oil or natural gas IS part of the problem. By legislating the use of energy like geothermal we solve our oil dependency problem, stop having to fight wars for oil, and clean up the environment. It's win, win, win.
This argument that we "need" or "must have" these vehicles is foolish. People in every other part of the world make do with smaller vehicles. We do not have the right to eliminate the homelands of other peoples just because are spouses have allergies. Wake up and smell the CO 2.
Posted by: John Morgan | November 14, 2007 at 09:44 AM
People in other parts of the world make due on about $100 a month...I dont see you..or me...about to head over to Bangladesh to start living the clean C02 lifestyle. People in other parts of the world dont have indoor plumbing either...want to give up that too to save some H2O?
And again, I am all for other sources of energy...but until someone figures out a way to make...your choice...geothermal energy...ready to heat every home and fuel every vehicle in the US, then we would be foolish NOT to use our supplies. I'm all for tax incentives and tax breaks for companies who can do ground breaking research for alternative sources. Could you imagine the cost, the impact, the destruction of the economy and people's lives if tomorrow congress made geothermal energy a requirement? We dont have the infrastructure, we dont have the means of transport, we dont have anything in place to handle it. The cost to retrofit a home, let alone an entire city, state, country would be astronomical...it couldnt happen.
And unless you hop on a huffy or schwin and pedal everywhere, then you are part of the problem too.
I dont judge you on what you drive, dont judge me on what I drive.
:)
Posted by: tyler | November 14, 2007 at 11:54 AM
I do judge people who drive these gas guzzlers who fill them up with the blood of our soldiers.
Who is talking about Bangladesh and the third world? Go to Europe or Japan and look at the vehicles they drive. They make do very well. There's no plausible reason for Americans to drive these monstrosities and it's costing other Americans their lives and Pacific Islanders their countries. Many of them have had to abandon their homes and move to New Zealand due to rising seas.
What do you have to say to them?
Posted by: John Morgan | November 14, 2007 at 02:37 PM
Filling up with blood? I must have missed the blood pump at my last trip to Sheetz to fill up...must be around the back with the air hose and vacuums.
OK, Japan drives smaller cars...they also sell underwear in vending machines...not sure if we should adopt all their innovations. The market here will dictate what people will drive...when a person can no longer afford to gas prices, then that person will move to a smaller vehicle. But telling someone what they can an cannot drive is practically unAmerican. Who decides? What if my job is to drive horses to farms/races? Think a Prius is going to cut it? What if my job calls for me to haul dry wall around to build homes for underpriveledged people?
And again, John, unless you walk to work or take a bike, what do you tell those poor Islanders? And even if you take a bus...which runs on gas...you are part of the problem as well...
So, what should we be telling those New Zealand immigrants?
:)
Posted by: tyler | November 15, 2007 at 07:55 AM
It's the blood of our soldiers that's proving you with the cheap (relatively speaking) gas for your Ram. How many troops died this month to get you that gas?
Posted by: John Morgan | November 15, 2007 at 08:56 AM
If I had to put a number on it....
Zero.
Considering that we get most of our oil from Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Venezuala ( I dont go to Citgo). Let's not forget Russia too.
I hear the surge is working well in Quebec, we just may get them to stop speaking french...
Nice try.
:)
Posted by: tyler | November 15, 2007 at 09:19 AM