Gas: What's on everyone's mind!

Recently, a story was published that higher gas prices should be blamed on the consumer. What narrow-minded thinking and certainly not understanding what really controls world gas pricing.

Yes, 42 percent did vote blaming President Obama, because he certainly has helped fuel the recent escalating gas pricing with his vetoing the Canadian Shale Sands Oil pipeline to Texas, not allowing drilling in the Gulf, not allowing drilling on Alaska federal lands and certainly not pressuring the Congress to pass legislation to put some controls on the U.S. oil companies that control most of the U.S. pricing increases we pay at the pump. State and federal gas taxes could be reduced. Gas prices at the pump go up even before the higher barrel price supplies reaches the consumer from their gas refinery transport suppliers.

You also read where refineries are shut down during a crisis for repairs and cleaning and sometimes questionable fires like the one that recently happened in California. Pricing for the consumer is controlled by stock speculators, unsettling rumors from oil producing areas and not about supply and demand as is claimed.

Here in the U.S., more oil drilling is being done now than has been done in past years, with many of the present drilling cycle being approved under the Bush administration. Yes, we as consumers can reduce our driving demands, but we can't control the pricing increases taking place now. When oil supplies are plentiful, barrel pricing cost drops and refineries have a plentiful supply of gas, how fast does the price per gallon go down at the pump? Very slowly, and only pennies over an extended period of time. Now, big oil sees the opportunity to reach that $4+ a gallon, and they're not slowing down to reach it.

We can also put some blame on the U.S. Transportation Department. Under many previous administrations, mileage for new automobiles was mandated to be increased so much each year. Over the years, the automobile manufacturing lobbyists have forced our Congress to cancel those requirements. Our new cars today don't get any better mileage than Henry Ford's Model A and Model Ts got when they were built. Yes, some manufacturers claim 35 and some 40-plus miles per gallon, but do you really get that kind of mileage in actual everyday driving?

The first new fuel standards since 1990 are just now going into effect. President Obama's remark about checking the inflation of your tires and driving less will help drive down the higher gas prices is laughable. He also recommended that we trade in our big gas guzzlers for more economical cars and this reflects on his real belief that we're in a downed economy. How are people out of work and those barely making it supposed to find that additional money to make those added car payments? With the national unemployment factor still at 8.3 percent (and that's a Washington factor when it's probably closer to 14 percent), any of those unemployed for a long period of time and just doing what they can to survive are no longer carried on the statistics records that Washington uses.

If we can survive until November, maybe and hopefully, things will start to change for the better. God bless America.

Respectfully,

Bill Singleton is a Coeur d'Alene resident.