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Highlands Today

Declare War On Oil And Obliterate Gasoline Usage

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 21, 2008

Remember World War I? That was the war to end all wars. Then came Dec. 7, 1941, and the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. There we sat with World War I weapons, ammunition and military tactics. World War I resources against an enemy with the latest war materials: new carriers, the torpedo, aircraft, and the famous Jap ZERO.

We got our butts kicked, and we are getting our butts kicked again, by the oil companies of the world. Remember how we came back and kicked butt to win World War II? It took a while, but we did it. We put every engineer to work to come up with new aircraft, ships, tanks, guns, and yes, that famous little JEEP. And all those volunteers who joined the military. We staffed the many factories that built all the tanks, planes, and guns. The women went to work in the factories so the men would be free to fight for our country. We were fighting on two fronts: the Japanese and the Germans. We would win the war at the cost of thousands of lives and billions of dollars.

Why can't we do this again? All we have to do is declare war on oil! People of our country want us to open our valuable coast to off-shore drilling and state governments are in favor of it. The federal government says we need more oil. This action will not make the price of oil-gasoline go down; it will just put more profits in oil companies' pockets.

Declaring war on oil means we go all out to win. How? We give a couple billion dollars to each American auto company to be used just for new automobiles that do not use gas or oil to operate: electric cars, not gas and electric. We form a task force to invent better batteries. Hydrogen-fueled cars are the best way to go. The government could subsidize American auto plants like they did in World War II. The auto companies would construct the whole infrastructure of the new fuel stations, and then sell franchises to people who want to invest in the new fuel stations.

Can you imagine pulling into a fuel station where the sign reads "GMC fuel, Ford fuel, etc." at prices of $1.85 per gallon or less?

The government could sell E-Bonds, E for Energy. If everybody gets involved, we could win this war. The government is spending hundreds of billions of dollars on the war in Iraq. We would be better served to win the war going on at home, in the United States of America.

Think of all the people who would have jobs created by the manufacture of new types of automobiles and the new fuel stations? The big oil companies have screwed the automobile industry and they're screwing the American people with high prices for food, fuel, travel, entertainment. Everybody is suffering: professional businesses, healthcare, hospitals, doctors, lawyers; you can go on forever.

The oil companies still have to make gas for the old types of cars, but their days should be numbered. We can get by very well with our own oil to produce petroleum products. If the government can finance a world war against an enemy aiming to take our country and our freedom from us, they sure can save us in this day of crisis.

Richard DeVoss

lives in Lake Placid

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