|
 Well,
it's May, so that means it's time once again for all the
usual summer rituals: Baseball season getting into full
swing; People frantically trying to lose weight, and Chuck
Schumer in front of television cameras, threatening the oil
companies.
Chuck, no threats of investigations are needed: gas prices
are going to keep getting higher because of special interest
groups, politicians and capitalism. House Democrats can
have all the hearings they want -- like they did this
afternoon -- to look for a villain, but the truth is that $3
dollars seems high because that's the perception we've
created. In five or ten years you might just look back and
wish you'd converted your in ground swimming pool to a gas
holding tank when you see what fuel costs then...who knows.
In fact, I predict that we see close to $4 a gallon gas by
the end of the summer.
Politicians make short term price spikes seem like
international incidents, when the real crisis is our massive
addiction to oil and our unwillingness to actually solve the
underlying problems. But you know what...let me humor Chuck
for a second and play the "why have gas prices spiked again"
game that we play every single summer.
The Real Story why gas prices spike is because the
refineries can't operate at full capacity because they're
old and decrepit. They're old and decrepit because we
can't build any new ones. We can't build any new ones
because the environmental lobby and the "not in my backyard"
groups have made it ridiculously expensive.
In 1981, the United States had 324 oil refineries. Got
that? 324. By 2005 only 132 refineries were left. I'm not
sure if you've noticed, but our demand for oil hasn't
exactly decreased in those twenty four years. Our
refineries are like an elderly Wal-Mart greeter putting in
70 hour weeks...they just can't keep up that pace. And
you're not going to hear the oil companies crying for more
refineries because they like keeping the supply low and the
profits high.
So Chuck, let me tell you what those investigations will
reveal right now, for free. On one side you've got the
environmentalists who want the combustion engine gone, and
on the other side you've got the oil companies who, like
most American businesses, enjoy big profits.
Guess who's in the middle getting squeezed every single
time? Yea, it's us....the public. You don't need a
Congressional investigation to figure that one out.
|
|
Research Articles
Show Transcript
Send us Your Real Stories!
If
you've seen a news story lately and thought to yourself that
the media has it all wrong, we want to hear from you! Send
us the story you saw, along with what you think the Real
Story should be, by filling out the form below.
|
