Our Fixation with High Gas Prices

COMMENTARY | Gas prices, gas prices, gas prices. It seems this is all I'm hearing about on cable TV news. In a Gallup Poll, 85 percent of motorists said President Barack Obama and Congress should take "immediate action" to keep gas prices in check.

A USA Today analysis indicates that the politicians' power is limited. One option is to temporarily tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which Obama did in June to scant effect. Another is to put reins on price speculation via the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which few Americans, including this writer, understand.

Obama's conservative foes continually insist he could do more, as though he somehow desires the political suicide of high gas prices. One report on redstate.com, for example, is headlined, "10 Ways Obama Could Reduce Gas Prices Now," but the content refutes the headline. Among the Top Ten are to proceed with the Keystone XL Pipeline and to drill in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve. Agree or disagree with the proposals, obviously these are future options, not "now" issues.

Personally, except for concern regarding low-wage workers who must drive daily distances to jobs at big box stores and the like, I don't get in a big lather over gas prices. All sorts of other prices may rise, such as phone service or cable TV, but people will drive miles for gas that's a dime a gallon cheaper. Second, my family doesn't need much gas because we have planned for these prices since the 1970s oil shocks. We live in the center of our hometown instead of way out in the boonies. I'm retired now, but always lived within two miles of my job.

When John F. Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country," he wasn't talking about gas prices. Still, all of us could help to conserve.

When a fellow or sister motorist is at my side on a one-way and the light ahead turns yellow, in anticipation of red, why do they speed up and then hit the brakes hard, while seconds later I've coasted to a stop right next to them? I think to myself, this probably is one of the 85 percent complaining about gas prices.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fixation-high-gas-prices-234500181.html

hangover cure lebron james engaged auld lang syne end of the world 2012 pink martini times square 2012 predictions