Gasoline Prices

I realize that we seem to have beaten a dead horse when we talk about prices at the pump for gasoline. But after seeing a story in Highlands Today I couldn't resist adding a few more comments on the subject.

About 6-7 months ago, when crude oil was up as high as $140 per barrel, gasoline was about $4 a gallon at the pump. Our bright politicians and others in power advised us to drive less, buy vehicles with good gas mileage, buy hybrid vehicles and conserve on gasoline as best we could. Then the price of crude started to fall and was reaching as low as $34 per barrel and gas at the pump also dropped for awhile.

Crude is still down below $40 per barrel and guess what, the price at the pump is back up again around $2 per gallon. Our bright advisors tell us that the reason the price is heading up again is that there is a glut of oil available, the demand is way down and refiners are slowing down production.

So now we see that being the good citizens that we are and having taken the advice of the bright ones to use less gas, buy good gas mileage vehicles, etc., we are being penalized for our frugal ways by seeing gas prices go up again. When will we stop being made fools of by the oil companies? Will we have to wait until the profits of Exxon go up to $50 billion next year?

Where are our elected officials when we need them? As some wise man said a long time ago, "only in America." I truly love my country and served for over 30 years in our armed forces and I certainly wouldn't want to live anywhere else, but please legislators, senators, representatives, help us get through this mess our economy is in. We deserve better!

Howard Newmark
Sebring