No, just kidding.
With all the complaining recently about high gas prices, you'd think the Constitution includes a guarantee of $1.50 per gallon gas - isn't that somewhere in the Bill of Rights?
If you think you got it bad, check out this map of gas prices from around the country. I guess we should all move to Natrona County....in Wyoming. Of course we'd have to put up with some minor inconviences, like the nearest grocery store being 100 miles down the road - but, hey, it's mostly empty logging roads!
But hey, someone's getting rich, right? Well, yes, yes they are. But we act like the oil companies owe us one - like, all we do, after all - is use their product everyday in just about everything they do, the least they could is take one for the team, right?
Ok, I don't pretend to have the answer to this problem, but here's my 2 cents (which is now about a $2.91 thanks to artificially inflated opinions, damn oil companies). Here's what I remember from my microeconomics class (or was it macro?) - The price of a product is determined by how much there is of the product (supply) and how much people want to buy that product (demand). Demand goes up and supply stays the same = price goes up.
So - you want lower gas prices? It seems to me we're not going to lower demand for oil products in this country (all aboard the last bus to Natrona County!!) - or around the rest of the world (hey, we're talking to you, China and India, quit trying to modernize!)
But what about the supply of oil or other sources of energy? There's hasn't been an oil refinery built in the country since the 1970s. We refuse to build new nuclear power plants. And when we refuse to build wind farms off pretty places, like Martha's Vinyard, or drill for oil in not-so pretty places, like northern Alaska - we're making the choice to stay the course of rising gas prices.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, 3-Mile Island, those poor moose, the Mother Earth and all that... in the meantime, how's that boycott of Exxon working?
Great commentary!! I enjoyed scanning the map you provided. It would take some mighty convincing to get me to step foot anywhere in Wyoming again.. Even with thier lower gas prices - I still can't figure out why anyone would want to live there!
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