Monday, April 21, 2008

Oil Goes UP UP UP!

According to the NY Times on 4/21/08, "Oil jumped to a record on Monday...gasoline prices rose above $3.50 a gallon for the first time across the nation...(up) 22 percent in the last year...some analysts expect prices close to $4 a gallon this summer."

Diesel was $2.93 a gallon at this time last year. Today it reached $4.20.

Get this...recently I heard some big wig news analyst declare that $3.50 was some kind of psychological threshold. I immediately thought, who says and what are the criteria? Where do you suppose they plucked that number from? And even if $3.50 is some magic threshold, so what? What difference will it make? It is not as if we have a lot of options. Oh yeah, I almost forgot about all of the public transportation easily accessible to most of us in the US. It will be a cinch to change our driving habits by switching over to the bus or train.

And how does OPEC feel about the skyrocketing price of oil? According to the Times article, OPEC is perfectly happy just the way things are. I don't assume Bush and his buddies are complaining much either, although the Times doesn't report on their reaction. I did however hear that the GOP is happily taking political advantage of the high gas prices. They are rolling out a campaign blaming Pelosi for the higher gas prices and pointing out the price at the pump is higher today than when Pelosi became speaker. As if it is her fault! Think it sounds crazy? Look who we're dealing with. The low of the low can go even lower! The scary part is knowing there are many voters out there who buy into that kind of bullshit. Cheers! Meg