One week ago gasoline in Southern California was hovering around $4.50, and Californians were leading a charge to develop alternative fuels.
For the past 40 years, gasoline has been cheap, and therefore we’ve had absolutely no incentive to invest in other areas of energy. Why would we spend billions of dollars on research and development? Gasoline was $1.50 per gallon just 6-8 years ago!
In my opinion, we should keep the price of gasoline between $4-$5 dollars, regardless of the price per barrel. Through strong incentives, we should require the big oil companies to invest a portion of their profits in alternative fuel development.
The ultimate goal is to become independent of foreign oil. Our leadership in America is weak; virtually non-existant in this regard. For 40-50 years, politicians and business officials have sacrificed Amercia’s future independence for higher short term profitability and gains.
Always remember how things get done in America. We have to get really angry to start making sensible demands. Forcing everyone to pay more than they can afford for gasoline will cause enough anger to get Americans to start speaking up for themselves.
Don’t let your guard down when the per gallon price drops to $3.80. Speak up! Demand $4.80, and insist that the extra dollar go towards putting the Saudi’s out of business.
I’d rather education force us to invest in alternative energy sources rather than having to pay $4+ bucks at the pump. Why can’t people think or consider change before it’s too late & hurting them in their pocket books?
Nice writing. You are on my RSS reader now so I can read more from you down the road.
Allen Taylor
Requiring big oil to invest in alternative energy sounds more sensible than taxing their “windfall profits,” at least to me. Maybe that plus moving their current tax subsidies to small companies engaged in bringing alternative energy to market would be a good combination?
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!