The politicians that have sucked up to the oil companies for so long are getting nervous.
I can't imagine why.
Could it be the freezing of CAFE standards, so that we would consume more oil?
Could it be the big tax breaks for those with Little Penis Syndrome, that felt compensated by driving Hummers and other monster vehicles?
Could it be the huge tax cuts the oil industry received when they were already making record profits?
Whatever it is that's making them nervous, anything short of having a Lincoln Navigator drove up their backsides just wouldn't be justice.
President Bush and congressional Republicans are under mounting public pressure
to reduce gasoline prices, but they have few if any policy choices that would
cut them over the next few months as family driving reaches its annual peak and
as the midterm elections near.
We're suffering here in the UK as well. However we long ago dropped gallons and now all pricing is in litres and for good reason. At the current average of £1 a litre this works out at $7.15 a US gallon by my reckoning!
ReplyDeleteWe would love to get back $3 a gallon however Gordon Brown (UK Chancellor in the Blair government) has deep pockets to fill (60/70% of the cost of gas in the uk goes on tax).
I remember paying $4 a gallon in France back in '74.
ReplyDeleteWe have 5% of the world's population and use 25% of the world's energy. Pretty shameful, huh.
The oil companies have done everything they could to discredit pulbic transportation and alternative energy sources in this country. So we're not even prepared for the current crisis.
I feel for you, and we are about to experience what you have been putting up with for years.
Serves us right for not starting to work on the problem a long time ago.