This morning I called to schedule a delivery of 200 gallons of home heating oil. Total price: $856.00
Can’t afford that. I settled for 100 gallons. Total: $427.00 That still hurts.
With no “plans” being offered to help America become oil/energy independent, this winter is clearly going to be one that dramatically impacts our national economy, and not in a good way.
As the Mike Ramirez cartoon above brilliantly illustrates, every congress and every president since Jimmy Carter has failed us on the issue of Energy Independence. Every single one of them.
China is drilling 75 miles off our coasts; we’re drilling nowhere.
When Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid took over their respective houses in 2006 - just two years ago - oil was trading for $56.00 a barrel. Gas was around $2.25 a gallon. The high oil prices are not all their faults, but they offer no ideas, no help beyond (as Maxine Waters admitted) “taking over the oil industry” - which, given how poorly governments run anything, is not reassuring. Chavez’s government runs Venezuela’s oil. Fausta says they’re now importing!
Holding your own countrymen hostage to foreign oil while also refusing to allow nuclear energy…it’s not leadership. It is the opposite of leadership. And it’s un-American, too.
Signing petitions is all well and good, but I begin to think that the only way congress will ever take action is if they get hurt.
And the only way to hurt a congress is to vote them all out.
Whoever the incumbent is, vote for the other guy. A new congress full of greenhorns cannot be worse than the clowns in charge, now, and maybe the thick-heads facing re-election next time will finally understand. Maybe.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:37 am
I’m an architect. I recommend “The Passive Solar Energy Book” by Mazria. Rodale Press, 1979. It will show you how, with a newly constructed house, good sun exposure (most of the country has this) and little extra expense, you can heat your house with sunlight most of the time. I have designed a house which gets the equivalent of 300 oil gallons of energy per year from sunshine. It is not hard to do; there is no fancy equipment; it is all in how you arrange the parts of the house. Yes we should drill for “more” oil. But the sun is going to shine, shine, shine, and it will do so for free, free, free. It is God’s gift to use, and it will likely outlast the oil supply.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:44 am
Got a little up-close-and-personal shake-up yesterday.
Drove with son-in-law to the gas station (about 7 miles away) with all the empty gas-for-mowers-etc cans).
Filled wife’s car and one-and-a-half of the big cans–pump shut me off at $75.00.
Did the thing with the card again, finished fill the big can and a bunch of little ones — $67 and change.
Does Prius make a lawnmower?
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:57 am
“Drilling in ANWR will not help right now even if we started drilling today. That oil wouldn’t come online for many many years.”
But if we steal–oops, borrow–from future generations (and squander the legacy bequeathed by those who built up the country) we can buy votes right now and the bill won’t come due for many many years.
June 2nd, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Regardless of which presidential candidate wins we seem destined to recreate the Carter administration with the 2008 equivalent of “gas lines”. I wonder when we will hear the “Malaise” speech.
June 2nd, 2008 at 3:49 pm
The Democrats are not responsible for high prices, but I do remember them running on bringing prices down. Look at how that turned out.
June 2nd, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Amen to your conclusion!!!
Congress is idiotic. Our major problem is energy, and they consistently block all sorts of domestic energy projects. Those that Congress doesn’t explicitly block, the environmentalist groups do.
It’s going to be a very, very tough winter indeed for many people. Most of the price increases are in the absolute basics which people need to survive - food and fuel. God help the older people!
It’s going to be hard for us because most of us are going to be strapped, but this year maintaining or increasing contributions to food banks and charitable organizations is absolutely essential. Congress has done nothing to help.
June 2nd, 2008 at 5:25 pm
[...] my favorite today, from The Anchoress - 100 gallons of oil rocks the vote! Our leaders are, dare I say, depressingly [...]
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:13 pm
[...] And the only way to hurt a congress is to vote them all out. 100 gallons of oil rocks the vote! | The Anchoress [...]
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Tuesday Tid-Bits…
Imagine spending your time (all your time) no more than 15 feet apart from your significant other:
Did you hear about that Buddhist couple who’re never more than 15 feet apart? Well, we tried it.
HT: Instapundit
Simon says:
A real shame export…
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:13 am
I’ve been saying for a long time the only way to clean up Washington is to do a complete turnover in both Houses. I do have a caveat: After dumping the bums this year insist on term limits of 12 years total in Congress served in whatever combination the person wants, i.e. six years in the House and six in the Senate if they can stay that long.
If they won’t put forward the amendment due to their own power-hungry greed then it’s up to the states to propose the amendment and force it to a vote in the country. I’m sure there’s a provision for that in the Constitution. We don’t want a Constitutional Convention because every nut in the country will be changing the entire document to the detriment of the country.
We use electric for our heat and everything else in our house. It’s purchased by our city from the local nuclear power plant and the city is a partner with the power plant. We get it cheaper. We have warmer winters than you, most of the time, but the summers kill us with the a/c running, but it’s like I said when JC had us go to 68 degrees in the winter and 78 degrees in the summer: “I might have to go through that at work but as long as I’m working I’m going to be comfortable at home.” The same goes now that I’ve retired. Greedy, probably, but we need more nuclear power and more refineries to go along with drilling for oil in our own country before China gets it all.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:02 pm
[...] else has a shot at our crude oil resources… why not us? Why must we freeze, while Saudi princesses dance around in Tiffany tiaras? It’s the [...]
June 10th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
[...] June 10, 2008 at 4:46 pm (DimWitDems, Election2008, Politics) The first, via The Anchoress, [...]