Editorials

As per the St Pete Times, the local paper we subscribe to due to the cost being less expensive, as well as the news being almost identical to the other paper available in this area, stated on Tuesday, 5/23/06, that there was a 'spattering' of gasoline price gouging after Hurricane Katrina, chalking up soaring prices to regional or local market trends, rather than implied post-hurricane price gouging by seven refiners, two wholesalers and six retailers.

Now I voted republican, and have friends on both sides of the political line, BUT, I learned early as a programmer in the IT business, that when you finished a project, someone else checked the results, as I can make the results equal anything you want. This is like allowing the fox to check the chicken coop, to ensure that all the hens are safe, which seems to be the case here.

These same government pundits proclaimed that investigations would be launched to inquire why the major oil companies posted massive, record earnings for the business quarter after the hurricane season, as to some potential taxes to pass these inflated earnings back to the public from which they were extracted; so where are they??.

The government, both sides, should have allowed economists, non-politically aligned business leaders, if there is such a  thing, and allow a committee responsible only to the general public, with their findings published without the political tailoring that usually plague such investigations.  

Now, let's be rational; gas already in the tank at the local station has already been purchased with existing dollars at the current fee, so why does that gas jump $ .20 - $ .30 per gallon as it should not have been affected?

Now, let's be rational; gas purchased by COMPANYA, a national concern, has been paid for at a set amount, so why does COMPANYA's stations, 15 or so within a 10 miles area, fluxiate the same $.20 - $ .30 per gallon, since the company paid the identical amount for this same gas?

Now, let's be rational; if the cost of foreign or non-domestic gas jumped exponentially by a defined amount, and that amount was absorbed by the gas companies, then that same amount SHOULD have been passed on to the consumer public, with no gain or expanded profit.  Yet, what went wrong people?? These same companies posted record profits, but one would think that the increased costs would balance with the income extracted from John Q. Public, so the profit would be minimal. What's UP?

Big Oil has fingers in both sides of congress, republican and democrat, with a very strong lobby. We have accepted these large increases in gas costs, which impacted our long haul truckers, citizens on a fixed income, single parents, the working middle class, or any class that works as I am never sure where I fell, and untold numbers who's budgets were expanded without additional income to balance the expenditures

Now, let's be rational;  what can we do to alleviate these problems, both foreign and domestic? We have to have a more efficient mode of transportation and should petition our elected officials to do something, rather than pay lip service, and try to have cars that gets better gas mileage.  Yes, that is a stopgap measure, BUT we must be free of a dependence on foreign oil, and I apologize, but I do not have an answer.

What happened to the 70 mile per gallon carburetors that we all heard about years ago? If we can put a man on the moon, can't we build a more efficient car and have better sources of energy?

In closing, we are being conditioned to accept the existing gas prices, as I heard a fellow remark that $2.73 was excellent to fill up his car, and how long ago was it, that we thought that $ .99 was excessive.