Blame The Consumer - No, Really!

You expected it, did you not?

Big Oil and the traders are solely to blame for skyrocketing petroleum prices. Some of the slightly more honest articles will correctly include the global economic recovery as a factor. I am not an economist; I believe all the above contribute to the problem but what is conspicuous in its absence is blame for the consumer. I commute 50 miles one way to work. I do not complain about gas prices; it is a lifestyle choice and the rewards and costs are mine alone, not Chevron or Shell Oil’s. I want to live rural and will forsake other pleasures in order to have the gas money to do so. That people, we are told, have to choose between gasoline and food is ludicrous, stupid and nasty public proclamation. I have no constitutional right to cheap gas; nor do the drivers of macho trucks and gas-guzzling SUV’s the latter which irresponsible women drive to make sure it is HER family that is not hurt when she plows in to a little car while on her cell phone.

SHAME on anyone who bought one of these vehicles after the gas price spike two years ago. You have absolutely no one to blame but yourself. No one else! I have yet the pleasure of hearing any driver of a gas guzzler purchased within the last two years complain about gas prices. I relish the opportunity to ask that person if he has ever considered if he might drown while trying to drink a glass of water. I will be just a bit more tactful but not much.

The Obama progressives love the hike in oil prices because they believe it will direct drivers to their coveted electric cars. I am hoping he will not be able to "drive" that "vehicle" to the next election. This president knows how to ride razor blades but I am confident this ride will slice‘n dice him. Have you noticed that corn is now $.40 to $.60 an ear? It used to be $.20. I do NOT want to put corn in my gas tank; I want to eat it. Odd that we hear not a peep from the farmers, huh?

If His Cowardice were to announce – and mean it – that the stops have been pulled on domestic energy development, petroleum prices would drop perhaps 25 percent overnight because the same greedy-awful-evil traders and Saudis would be motivated to undercut the profit margin on the products from our domestic energy development. That, however, we can deal with within tax and tariff structures.

What the Let’s-Hate-Big-Oil-And-Traders folks never mention is that there is some benefit to the average consumer that accrues to oil company profitability. I do not know totals but both public and private-sector pension systems are heavily invested in petroleum commodities. This means that today we pay at the pump for a flush pension system down the road. I am quite happy making my meager contribution to my future financial well-being. I sincerely appreciate the extra contribution the owners of gas guzzlers make to my pension.

Quit bitching about gas prices. Get a small car; shed the monster truck you so love to use after a bad day at work to bully the smaller car on the road. Get rid of the SUV – a side benefit to you and other drivers is that you will drive safer because in your brand new small car you risk hurting your kids as much as you do the innocents in the smaller car your SUV would destroy compliments of your “me-first” driving.

Write your elected “representatives.” Tell them to open the gates to domestic energy development which might include windmills and sun, you know, for entertainment. (If you have a lucky day you will see a huge windmill blade whack a bald eagle.) In that same letter let them know if they tear down the dams it will be THEIR houses that will first be removed from the power grid.

Your economic future, and even the diminishing opportunity to take your summer vacations are in your hands. If you are a part of our lack of will to develop new energy then don’t complain because you are a part of the problem.

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