Over the last few days, I have heard a couple of news reports regarding a number of options we could pursue domestically to begin getting control of the current price of oil and our dependence on foreign oil. Here is what is being currently suggested:
- Federal and State reprieves on gasoline taxes. In the State of Missouri, the State House has already given initial approval of this and, of course, the presidential candidates are all chiming in on the Federal gas tax.
- One northern state governor (Montana?) is proposing to process coal to create gasoline; apparently this is very doable.
- A large oil deposit has recently been discovered in North or South Dakota (?). Apparently, this oil deposit may be larger than the one in Saudi Arabia. Of course, the environmentalists have issues with this one. I say, it's time to start pumping some oil!
- Anwar up in Alaska has a large oil deposit that we can't access due to environmental restrictions.
We need to start putting some pressure on our federal and state governments about taking proactive action to get our current gas prices under control. These gas prices are really beginning to crunch/crush the budgets of middle income and lower income families.
It's also time for environmentalists to get realistic about the needs of the citizens of this country and its overall economy. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few!
Here's what President Bush is proposing, but he's getting stonewalled by Congress:
(In a Rose Garden press conference, Bush recommended a host of economic fixes:)
* More oil drilling in the United States.
* Turning mothballed military bases into oil refineries.
* Passage of the Colombia free-trade agreement.
* Eliminating farm subsidies for multimillionaire farmers.
* Additional investment in alternative fuels and nuclear energy.
* Possibly suspending the federal 18-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax.
No comments:
Post a Comment