The price of gas will soon hit $4.00 a gallon in time for summer. Maybe the best scenario would see the price rise to $6.00 or more. Maybe then Americans would finally take some action. I bought gas yesterday in Arcadia, Louisiana (the small town known for being the place where Bonnie & Clyde were ambushed and shot to pieces in their car). The low grade gas was $3.17 per gallon. Gas will hit $4.00 a gallon by the 4th of July weekend, according to a friend who works high-up in an oil company. He claims that has already been decided. So much for the old supply and demand bullcrap.
Remember back before the last election last September - December when gas prices mysteriously fell from the summer's $3.00+ a gallon to back near $2.00 a gallon? Remember all the explanations about hurricanes, damaged oil refineries, Middle East unrest, etc being the causes of the summer's high prices, and how the fall to $2.00 was due to economic factors that should continue so that gas would remain economical through this coming summer? What a crock! That was nothing more than the big oil companies trying to help elect/re-elect their Republican buddies so that Congress would keep giving them sweetheart treatment. I said so at the time and was rebuked as being ignorant of world economics and all the factors that affect oil prices. I pointed out that the oil companies were making record-breaking billion-dollar profits at the time. They could easily have reduced gas prices that summer and still made a reasonable profit without gouging the public. I also predicted that after the election was over, prices would rise starting in March - April and would exceed last year's prices by summer. It took them even less time than I thought to return to their greedy ways. (Be sure to remember their claims that supply and demand forced them to charge these high prices when they report their excessive billion-dollar profits again this year.)
Here's a radical thought. Maybe it would be best in the long run if gas prices in America soared to $6 a gallon or even more this summer. Hear me out. Then the public would demand an explanation that made sense from oil companies and would demand something be done to limit their record-breaking billion-dollar profit margins. Moreover, people would stop buying all those SUVs that get 16 mpg around town and 19 mpg on the highway and would start buying automobiles that get 35 mpg in town and 40 mpg on the road. It is past time we did so.
In addition, gas at $6+ per gallon would encourage the development of Alberta's oil shale industry. Supposedly, Canada has oil reserves in its shale that equal the Middle East oil reserves. It costs about $3.50 a gallon for gas produced from shale at presently available technology. Thus, if gas sells for $6+, it would become highly profitable for oil companies to develop fully gas production from Canadian shale. In only a couple of years, Americans would be driving automobiles getting double the gas mileage of today's vehicles and would be buying its gas from Canadian shale oil at a stablized price around $3.50 a gallon (or lower as the technology for oil extraction from shale improves). AND the U.S. would be completely free from Middle East oil. To me, that is not a bad scenario...
