Check this out
April 24, 2006
Democrats Eager to Exploit Anger Over Gas Prices
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
NY Times- one paragraph snip
Officials at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which advises House candidates, said they sent a memorandum to candidates on Thursday offering guidance on using the issue to their advantage. The memorandum includes a “sample statement” that recommends telling voters, “Americans are tired of giving billion-dollar tax subsidies to energy companies and foreign countries while paying record prices at the pump.”
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/20060424monday.html
Right. They are looking to exploit the ignorance of the electorate in order to win elections. But I was looking at solutions to the problem. And neither side has a monopoly on solutions. We are going to need to invest in more oil, at the same time as investing more money into infrastructure to get a lot of people out of their cars. Public transportation is going to have to improve a lot. Most of the buses I am on during the day are standing room only. That’s 35 to 40 people that are not driving around in cars. It takes up less space on the road and uses less gas. And it REALLY sucks sometimes when I am trying to get home from my job interview so I can get changed to go to work (by the way, I got the job, which will mean an extra $500 a month), but then I realize that traveling across town and back cost me almost nothing, and my car would have cost me $10 or so.
The problem is going to require an “all of the above” approach that no side seems to want to do.