PREVENTING $5 GASOLINE

Everybody is concerned about the escalating price of gasoline. In my community regular unleaded gas is going for $3.65 per gallon, and the price is jumping up and down on a daily basis. The newspapers and television pundits think we will see $5.00 per gallon gasoline shortly and some even suggest the price could go as high as $10.00 per gallon.

Let me assure you that the continuation of high gasoline prices will certainly impact our economy and it could lead to another recession that would be far more devastating than the one they say recently ended. As this problem continues to fester, our politicians are rubbing their hands together while calling for new hearings that will accomplish little or nothing except cost the already stressed taxpayers to fall deeper into debt.

In a recent New York Times on-line there was an article attributing a flawed suggestion by Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) that we should tap into the nations Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to alleviate price increases. Fortunately, Congressman Fred Upton (R-MI) has logically urged that the SPR be kept for a true emergency and not tapped at this time.

If the American government sends our military into Libya, the price of a barrel of crude oil will jump off the charts and even more people will hate America for putting its nose in another Middle East country’s business. The Muslim Brotherhood would love to see American troops in Libya so they can recruit and brainwash more believers to blow up themselves and innocent people into paradise.

The sad situation in Libya is exactly what the United Nations was created to address and solve, but history proves that all they do is hold endless expensive meetings that accomplish nothing, but permit more innocent lives to be lost by its inaction. Cases in point are Sudan and Somalia.

Where are our government leaders on this gas issue? They are playing politics, because they are compromised by the campaign contributions received from the environmental special interests. We have plenty of oil reserves within the USA to off-set any loss of oil production from Libya, but our politicians are compromised by their self-interests.

If President Obama announced tomorrow that he was authorizing the immediate development of American oil reserves, OPEC would call an emergency meeting to increase their oil production and the spot-price of oil would drop immediately. It is time to fire a shot across the bow of the OPEC monopoly and control our own economic destiny.

Please do not hold your breath that rational behavior will be on the horizon when it comes to Washington politicians having the backbone to address this serious economic threat in the best interest of fellow Americans.

COMMANDER GRANGER