WHO, ME? Shell, Chevron, Exxon-Mobile, BP Arco, Conoco-Phillips Pass The Well-Worn & Tattered Buck

No play on words intended. While big oil lays the blame for skyrocketing gas prices at the pump on the oil producing nations and increasing international demands for crude, they continue to bank records of billions of dollars in profits…each. I don’t know if it is coincidence or not, but they are also managing to stick millions of dollars into various U.S. political campaign coffers. You figure it out.

The glib Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton, best known for her candor, (or total lack thereof), proposes a special levy on oil profits to pay for a gas tax cut. She fails to explain the smoke and mirrors of her “magical solution.” The oil companies will simply add the levy to the cost of gas at the pump, thereby keeping the price per gallon the same and transferring the income from national highway repair funds to the pockets of the oil companies, who will then turn around and pay that income back to the Federal government. The net effect is zero, except for the added millions that accountants and lawyers will make in the process.

Another common plea from big oil is that they are spending millions and millions of dollars on exploration of “promising new fields.” Well, (again, pardon the play on words,) they get a tax break for that. My retort is, “How much are you spending on research and development of alternative forms of energy?” Because, in the final analysis, we’re eventually going to have to be looking at alternative forms of energy in order to survive, anyway.

Then, they argue that the environmentalists have them hamstrung because they can’t drill for new oil in the United States or just offshore. Frankly, that’s the only halfway decent argument they put up, and notice that I said, “halfway.” Sewn up in this general context is the need for more refineries; the environmentalists are stopping them for building more.

Well, (again, pardon that play on words), I agree that the environmentalists are going to have to give some ground here. Otherwise, someone’s going to end up walking in the cold winter and I hope they get first crack at that pleasure. But, why can’t big oil modernize and expand its existing refineries to meet the increased demand at the pump?

And, what about the consequences of allowing Congress to simply shrug its shoulders? All economic history and current indicators point to economic upheaval. It’s already starting, and I know that you can feel it. I can, and I don’t care what President Bush says.

In a posting on another of my blogs, MY AMERICAN OPINION, I suggested a cap on oil profits, penalties for NOT doing research and development and tax breaks for doing such research, as a method for finding some cost-effective ways for switching our energy sources from fossil-fuels and coal to something else that’s user friendly and less expensive. Someone else has suggested a four-day work week to reduce driving, (as if we’ll stay home one day out of a three day weekend?), and there are a few other equally disappointing solutions being circulated.

But, so-called solutions have been given lip service countless times before and nothing gets done about it.

Perhaps, I also suggested on that other blog, we should have a national undeclared protest day, where no one goes to work and the production of goods and services stops completely, (except for emergencies), for 24 hours. No one shops, no one goes to work, no one watches TV, we all just sit around and bond with our kids and families, (assuming we can remember their names), and we let our illustrious Representatives and Senators contemplate their navels for a day.

I was suggesting August 4^th. However, the nation’s truck drivers are now calling for a “drive out” for Monday, May 5^th, as a protest against high fuel prices. I think we should join them.

We have to do something! Right now, Congress and Big Oil are in the driver’s seat and we’re the ones paying for the gas!

Monday, May 5^TH! Stay home. Protest! Don’t go to work. Take a vacation day or sick day. Back the truckers. Get the message out.