Gas Prices

For a change, I didn't receive the email that's going around suggesting another gas boycott. The first one I got, I sort of boycotted the pumps, but it was because I had just filled up and didn't need gas on the suggested day.

After thinking about it, I realized that boycotting gas pumps for one day is stupid. If you follow the boycott, you'll gas up the day before, or the day after. What difference will that make? The gas companies still get their money, whether it's the day before, the day of, or the day after the boycott. It won't make a difference.

I paid $1.899 for gas last week and it's already $1.999 and higher here. So by the time I have to fill up again next week, I'll pay $2.00 a gallon. I have to, I need the gas to get to work. No gas, no work, no paycheck. I won't have to worry about boycotting gas pumps because I won't have a car to get to the work I no longer have. Much less a house, food, and so on.

The only way to bring gas price down is to either increase supply or lower demand. The American people aren't going to give up their SUV's for smaller, more economical vehicles. The American pyche tells us that bigger is better. If I have a bigger vehicle (or anything else), I'm doing well. Now, before you go off on safety and so on, that's not the issue here - that's one of the excuses for buying the bigger vehicles.

I drive a van. In my case, I bought the van because it's easier for my husband to get in and out of because of his physical limitations. He also has a van, but we've had car problems and been down to one vehicle. I need to know that if that happens again, no matter which car is down, he'll be able to get in and out of it with as little difficulty as possible.

So, back to the laws of supply and demand. I've established that the American public isn't going to downsize their vehicles. That leaves supply and my next point. We need to become less dependent on foreign oil supplies. It's just that simple. We need to be drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and in ANWR.

For Florida readers, there is an ad campaign telling you that drilling off the coast of Florida is going to kill marine life and destroy the environment. Listen carefully, there is no drilling going on off the coast of Florida right now. There are no oil rigs, no drilling, no nothing. The ads are a lie. Don't believe everything you hear just because it's on TV. If you don't believe me, and I hope you don't believe it just because you read it here, prove it to yourself and do your own research.

As for ANWR, we're talking about a postage stamp sized area in the Alaskan wilderness. It was explained to me like this: look at the fingernail on your little finger. See the size of it? Now compare it (sizewise) to the rest of your body. Not very big, is it? Now, if you hit that fingernail with a hammer, it would hurt the finger, but would your toe be effected? Not unless you dropped the hammer on it when you hit the finger. Does the fingernail eventually return to normal? Unless there are other considerations, such as diabetes, yes, it will regain it's color, shape, and former appearance.

There aren't many animals in that area in the first place and in the second place, they would simply move to another area. What happens when a developer starts building new houses in a pasture? The snakes, squirrels, and whatever other animals are there move. When the houses are finished (and even before) the animals start coming back. It happens every day. When the pipelines are in place, the animals will come back and cozy up to the pipelines for warmth, just like they now do along the Alaskan pipeline. That didn't hurt the wild life. In fact, I seem to remember that because of the heat generated by the pipeline, the wildlife returned to the area in higher numbers. I could be wrong, so don't quote me.

I am all for saving the environment, but, drilling in ANWR isn't going to create the environmental disaster that the environmentalists would have you believe.