It's the price of gas, stupid!

State governors promise to block attempts to tap offshore petroleum reserves.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25252119/

"As Governor of California, I will do everything in my power to fight the federal government on this issue and prevent any new offshore drilling," Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a McCain supporter, said Wednesday. “We are in this situation because of our dependence on traditional petroleum-based oil.”

Unfortunately, attempts to run the California state vehicle fleet on Arnold's dusty supply of posing oil have failed, Arnold could offer no other commercially viable alternative. It's real sweet that the 'governah' of the state with the second highest oil consumption, 656,863,000 barrels a year (while producing only 240,206 barrels) is against drilling, and we wonder why gas is $4 a gallon.

http://www.statemaster.com/graph/ene_pet_con-energy-oil-consumption
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/ene_pet_pro-energy-oil-production

Fortunately, I have a solution... we lower the price of gas in the other states to $2 a gallon and raise the price of gas in California to $6 (before state taxes are added in of course, and imposing a $4 surcharge to gas purchases for vehicles with CA tags in other states).

Among the states opposed to drilling is also #7 New Jersey consuming 225,683,000 and not even making the list of 31 top producers and #11 North Carolina consuming 178,544,000 and also not making the production list. You know, if we do this right, we could get the price of gas in the rest of the country back down to about $1.50, maybe lower.

"Our $35 billion economy is driven by tourism and the use of the shore," said New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine. Well Jon... what do you think the impact to tourism is with $4 per gallon gas... think your gonna get a lot of beachgoers when it hits $6? New Jersey constantly suffers beach closures due to raw sewage, garbage, and medical waste washups (Earth News) and they're worried about a little petroleum? Might actually cut down on the E. Coli count. I grew up back east and spent a lot of time at the Jersey shore... you could stick a drilling derrick on the end of the steel pier and I doubt anyone would even notice.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for conservation, energy-alternatives, and other eco-friendly things... but unless you're going to start distributing syntholine at $1 a gallon, shut your pie-hole and get with the program, I'm tired of the "I want to have my cake and eat it too" crowd bending the rest of us over.

Unfortunately our economy and oil are tightly intertwined, those of you dissatisfied with the current state of the economy would be foolish to tolerate this behavior, less oil isn't going to help. Sen McCain proposes adding 45 new nuclear reactors to the 104 we already have (which he claims produces 20% of our electrical needs), you got your math wrong John, that means we don't need 45... we need 416 new nuclear reactors...which would not only go a long way towards reducing our dependence on foreign oil, but would virtually solve our carbon emission problems. The US is 8th in Uranium production and Canada is #1... wouldn't you rather see your energy dollars going to Canada than Saudi Arabia?

Wonder what's wrong with our country? It's not the Iraq war, the price of oil, or gay weddings... it's our schizophrenic government (local, state, and federal) actions and policies. If you think I'm wrong, check out some of the symptoms for schizophrenia:

Impaired perception of reality, disorganized thinking, significant occupational dysfunction...

To paraphrase an aging cliche... It's the price of gas, stupid!

A man, dying of thirst in a desert, will cut a Prebles jumping mouse in half with a shovel while digging for water without a second thought.

No oil = No food for 300 million people... who ought to be on the endangered species list now? Of course that is an extreme example, but really... we ought to get some perspective folks.

My suggestion? Need a vacation spot? Cross California and New Jersey off your lists and go and visit Texas, they at least are helping somewhat in this petroleum predicament.

~Finntann~