Just One Guy’s Opinion About Pump Prices

by Jack

Has the world somehow changed overnight?  I don’t think so.  The population is about the same, right?  We have the about the same number of cars and trucks we did two years ago, but suddenly we have all this extra oil?   Weird, isn’t it?

I recall a time not so long ago, when the nation’s fuel prices were edging to the sunny side of $4 a gallon!  The legislators acted like deer caught in the headlights of a Mack truck…”Fossil fuels are being exhausted – the end is near!  We’ve got to go wind power before its too late!”  ”We don’t have enough refineries!”  “India’s new economy is taking our limited supply of Arab oil.”  “China’s new economy is taking our limited supply of Arab oil.”  Europe’s new economy is taking our limited supply of Arab oil.”  And so it went…excuse after excuse, to make us think we really were running out of oil.

Of course the Obama team was only to happy to provide any number of phony excuses for Big Oil to justify price gouging.   They loved the high pump prices, because it only moved their agenda ahead - that would be, “The lets phase out fossil fuel because of global warming” crowd.

Higher fuel prices would surely force consumers to buy little electric cars and go solar or burn ethanol, which in turn helps the liberal lobby representing alternative energy, such as wind and solar manufacturers, like Solyndra for example.

High pump prices justified subsidy money for corn farmers involved in the burgeoning ethanol industry.  And last but not least, high pump prices meant more quid pro quo deals to line the pockets of legislators.   I think we would all be amazed if we knew the true extent of all the backroom deals that were cut during this time between those in big oil and those in alternative energy, an odd pairing to be sure, but with a common objective…money.

So high gasoline prices just kept going higher and the sheeple lined up at the pumps to be fleeced.   Ah, there were so many excuse to justify the inordinately high fuel costs and now we know few of them were true.  It was largely a scam, but we’re still paying for it in other areas, such fuel surcharges to offset non-existent high pump prices.

I knew it was all a big scam at the time and I said so, but there were just not enough of us to stop the looting of American citizens.   Our watchdogs, the GOP in Congress, were worthless as ever.  And despite a confession by a top oil company CEO that acknowledged they were price fixing, nothing much came of it.   A half-hearted investigation, followed by no indictments.  But, then why should Congress be anxious to fix what brings them so much cash?  The oil industry is one of the biggest contributors their re-election campaigns.

It took the mother of all oil gluts to finally signal an end to the party, but not before our own State government hiked the taxes we pay them in every gallon and consumers were fleeced of billions, that was money taken right from your pockets and placed into a monopoly of oil companies.