A Slick Problem

Gas prices in the United States have taken a turn for the worse and show no signs of abating anytime soon. The situation has been a grim one for U.S. households already struggling to make ends meet now having to deal with high gas prices. So what have we learned from all of this-we can take lessons from this expensive education lesson.

We learn that we are doing next to nothing about alternative fuels and that oil still rules the day despite a Department of Energy created in 1976 to get us off of oil. Why is this? Like it or not, going green has proven to be nonviable from an economic sense. Spain tried to create a green economy and is in the process of dismantling it. Unemployment skyrocketed and cost more jobs than were created. All the tax credits in the world can’t make anyone green up enough to make it affordable to produce or to use.

We now know that the price of oil is not related to who is in the White House. When poor Pres. Bush was in the Oval Office and gas hit $3 a gallon there were calls from Democrats for hearings to investigate Bush’s role in making this happen for selfish profit. Where are those calls now? Surely Obama also is colluding with Bid Oil as we are nearing $4 a gallon. These calls were purely political ploys designed to hurt Pres. Bush plain and simple.

It is a certainty that despite calls for alternative fuels, we still love our oil. In fact we love it so much that we are willing to give money to countries like Venezuela and Mexico to feed our oil needs. Thus, it becomes a matter of national security and leaving ourselves open to having our supplies threatened. We import about 75% of our oil and almost none from Libya. Just imagine how expensive oil will be if the situation in Mexico literally goes south.

We have also learned that Pres. Obama is willing to let ideology rule over the economic recovery. He has come around to seeing the light on Guantanamo, on Iraq, on tax cuts, and needs to see that all he needs to do is say we will do all we can to safely drill for more oil and the price would drop. Sure we would not see a drop for years but the industry moves on news like this. What is saddest of all is that Obama is not even allowing oil in the Gulf Coast to recover on a meaningful basis. Instead of creating jobs, the oil situation has cost jobs in the Gulf and is stifling the alleged economic recovery.

We have subordinated so many things to environmental concerns to the point that we are serving nature in all aspects of our lives. We think nothing of depriving quality of human life for progress through eminent domain but conversely we also think nothing of stopping that same progress for some obscure insect. It is hard to believe that we think of abortion as a “choice” but it is just as hard to believe that we have no choice as to our energy resources. Unfortunately the state of our nation today reflects the twisted thinking of an ideology hell-bent on trying to guilt trip us into believing we are to blame for everything. I for one refuse to take this trip. What about you?