Now this I DO agree with. We can't continue to allow other countries to control our energy sources. We need to find our own solutions.

__________________

OPEC, not Bush and his "croonies" is partly to blame. Don't forget that China and India are buying record barrels of oil as well. It's sad since in the past year billions of barrels of oil have been found. We have Canada who just found 1.4 billion barrels, but since its in tar and all the stupid enviromental laws in America, we will probably not be able to purchase it, but don't worry someone else will. We also have the beloved nation of China drilling 50 feet out off shore from the flordia keys! Lovely, huh? We can't access that though, even though it has been mentioned. Why? Environment laws. Why can't we access oil in Alaska? Thanks Mr.Clinton, and the environmental protection you put on that land.

As far as I am concerned OPEC should be brought to its knees like it was when Regan was in office.

Who is one of the largest (if not THE largest) oil refiners/producers out there? Exxon/Mobil. Who furnishes it around the world? Them. Yes, they do pay for the raw oil, but....who owns the refineries and pumps? If they are paying such high prices for crude, then why are their profits up so high? And yes, I think as a leader of the leader, America, he should do something for HIS country, and work with the problem. To me, we are just left in the dark about this. Where is it stemming from? Is the price so high just because Iraq wants to hold us hostage? Trust me, we do drill our own oil here, too.

My point is that Exxon/Mobil is one of the largest refiners and distributors. Yet, they are making record profits. Why? If they are paying so much per barrel? Why is the top level so quiet about all the "investigations" they were supposedly doing? Don't you find it funny how we never hear about the results of those investigations?

Part of being President is having the finesse to negotiate (and save your country), or have the team in place to do so. However, the team at the top keeps having to play musical chairs; yet he sits back (gosh, why do I feel like capitalizing the "H" on he?).

So....what is your solution? Who are the producers in your mind? What is keeping us hostage (besides our own overdependence on oil)?

And, it's NOT a partisan issue. WHY is Congress so quiet on it, also? Why is nobody in power doing anything? As the prices went up, we just kept hearing lame excuses about why, yet nobody questioned them (except us little ignorant people). Yet, they kept testing the market by raising, lowering, raising again, to test tolerance, then letting prices hover. Now we are supposed to feel grateful that we'll pay $4+ per gallon over the summer because other countries are paying even higher? Wrong.

By the way, I don't hear the candidates offering any real, tangible plans to get us out of this mess, either. Just as our tolerance for $3+ per gallon is in place, will our tolerance for $4+ be the new level? Oops, there go my school taxes! And so much else!

By the way, I'm not BLAMING Bush and Congress...the leaders... for the high cost, but I am blaming him for his inaction. It's the same as his inaction on the China poisoning. (**putting on suit of armor now**)

__________________
Make someone's heart smile today.

Actually I was referring more to the fact that the problem could not be fixed by drilling at home, but you know I never miss a chance to blame Bush for anything!!!

__________________
~Happiness is a large family~

Okay. Exxon's first quater earnings were around 11 billion, up about 17% from a year earlier, and some people calls these profits obscene. What a sad lack of understanding about economics. For instance, Clinton is pushing a windfall profit tax on those "greedy" oil companies. All she and Obama talk about is how wrong their profits are. What's wrong is how politicians can munipulate public opinion to enact diastrous policies. American's should be thrilled at these profits and angry at congress because they dont encourage the oil companies to make more. America's economy is built on profit. Higher profits mean more jobs, higher incomes, more investment in equipment and people, higher standards of living. By signaling supply is scarce higher profits encourage more production. Congress seems constantly at war with oil companies slapping them with taxes yet ignoring the fact that higher profits lead to more exploration, drilling and development. If anyone is to blame for the energy mess it is congress. At least 20 billion barrels of oil sit in alaksa, and another 30 billion lie offshore. Yet, congress has pushed these out of bounds. According to Ernst&Young from 1992-2006 the US oil industry spent 1.25 TRILLION on long term investment vs profits of 900 billion. Truth is in 2007, a record year, oil companies earned 8.3 cents per dollar of sales. Beverage companies and cigarette makers, made 19.1 cents per dollar.Oil companies aren't high because profits are up, they're high because we don't have enough oil.

And Oil companies don't pay Windfall taxes. You do.

That's my .02 cents.

Watch the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car that points the finger at several people including Bush and his administration. We need to find an alternative to using oil period. I don't think drilling in Alaska is necessarily the answer. I may be mistaken but I heard that there are not enough oil refineries, so how will drilling help if we don't have more refineries?

I would like to say that by drilling our own oil will add competition and bring down prices, for starters. Second of all, WHY DOES BUSH KEEP GETTING BLAMED? He has made several attempts, some you may not hear of b/c our media is so one-sided, when in congress sits a DEMORCRATIC CONGRESS, who puts a stop to any help of bringing down costs?! He can get NOTHING done b/c they refuse to work with him!

ps- Don't forget that gov't officials get to write off their gas expenses-so WE also pay for it!

You sound like my husband!

Exactly what I was thinking. The solution isn't to drill for more oil, especially in environmentally protected areas. The areas have been protected for a reason, not so that when we feel like it we can unprotect it and drill away. No matter how environmentally safe the drilling procedures may be, there is always risk. Besides, drilling would just further promote our dependency on oil, rather than do what we really should be doing, which is developing alternate sources of energy. Rather than put money into drilling, the money should be put into research and development. Obviously, the environment falls low on the totem pole of priorities for politicians when it should be one of the number one concerns, along with education. If we put the amount of money we really should be into education, the alternate energy technology would probably already be developed and in place! But that's a whole other argument!

__________________




Pain is temporary, quitting is forever....