Everyone, publicly, wants to find that one, root cause of any problem. If there was just one cause it’s so easy to fix (and obviously not my fault). The trouble is, when you are dealing with something so complex as people, there is no such thing as that one root cause. There are dozens to hundreds of reasons the price of fuel is so high.

Tonight, just before bed, take a good look in the mirror and say to yourself, “I am part of the problem”. Mom, if you pick up Buffy at the school so she doesn’t have to ride that icky school bus, you are part of the problem. I got caught behind a school bus in my town that stopped at four adjacent houses to drop off one child at each – that is part of the problem (Wolcott, CT.). Buying junior his own car as soon as he gets his license is part of the problem. Making a bunch of short shopping trips? You are part of the problem.

The EPA is part of the problem. Clean air regulations have changed the mileage of a diesel pickup from 24 in 1993, to 18 in 2001, to 14 today. My 2001, 7000lb truck gets better mileage than most cars, around town, where most driving is done. And if you are getting ready to scream about air quality, please be ready to with the autopsies that show cause of death as diesel exhaust (hint: there aren’t any).

NIMBYism is part of just about any problem. Shut down those nuclear plants and don’t you dare build new ones. Don’t build those wind mills where a Kennedy can see them. Don’t build that new, cleaner, refinery near my house (but sell me that cheap fuel anyway). Don’t drill way off the coast, out of sight, and with a very good environment record, but just wait, China will be drilling off Florida’s coast. Wonder how good their environmental history is? Don’t bother, it’s very bad. While you are at it, since you don’t want us to drill in the U.S. at all, why don’t you take a little peak at those countries selling us oil? Oh, and don’t let me forget; don’t build that natural gas terminal in the Long Island Sound.

Big oil is gouging us? No doubt, sometimes. But the state and federal governments are making three times more per gallon than the oil companies are. Want to tax those oil companies some more? They will just pass that tax along to you, just like every other kind of company has to, just to survive.

Thirty years ago the environment movement screamed bloody murder that the Alaskan pipeline would be a disaster for the caribou. There are now three to four times more caribou than then, and they hang around the pipeline because it’s warm. Ten years ago they screamed bloody murder about drilling in ANWR using the same, stupid, argument. Guess what? It is ten years later and we could be using that oil right now. What do you want to pay in ten more years? But ANWR is pristine??? I think that means no sign of man. What a sorry creature that hates his own existence. But think of the polar bears. The bears will think of the drilling crew as a culinary opportunity. One last thought: the only bear that died of global warming in Al Gore’s flick is the bare faced truth.