Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Got gas?

Caught your attention didn't I?



For the past several weeks I've been in amazement over the shortage of gas in North Alabama. I realize its been a problem in other places too like Nashville, Atlanta, etc but since I work and live here I notice it more.



It all started with Hurricane Ike. People were running like mad to fill up before the storm hit. I am one of those crazy people. I called everybody I knew and told them if you need gas you better go now. By the end of the day, gas stations were out. Some still don't have fuel today. Along Highway 53 in Madison County, several stores like BP, Chevron, Exxon and Stop and Save still have plastic bags tied to the pumps. In Meridianville, Jet Pep and Raceway, which had received a shipment of fuel shortly after Ike, are out again. Some gas stations have a short supply of regular but no mid-grade or premium. When did fuel become short supply here in the great United States? We have oil refineries --they are up and going--so where are the fuel trucks? Why is it taking so long to relieve these gas stations? It's ridiculous to drive all over for a tank of unleaded regular. What is our world coming to?



And on the subject of fuel, the cost for gasoline is ridiculous. Gas gouging was huge when Ike hit. A month later, it's still high. Look at the economy. We are spending billions to bail out failing banks and mortgage companies. It's not fair! No one bails me out when I overspend. So here's my opinion - lower the gas price back where it belongs. It shouldn't cost me $50.00 to fill up. I remember in college paying 99-cents a gallon. Drop the pice for fuel and everything else will come down to.



Why am I on a rant? I went to the grocery store tonight and have you checked the price for produce, orange juice, milk, bread, eggs, meat? I don't know about you but my paycheck is hard to earn and what little I have after paying bills doesn't stretch THAT far. I can't imagine having a family of 5 like my brother. Bless ya Chris!!!!!



Pray for our world and the so-called great thinkers making decisions on how to run it!

1 comment:

John said...

Bill O'Riley claims it's the fault of greedy oil executives; sound economic analysts suggests that it's more world demand for fuel (China's growth curve, for example) and speculators; when it was announced that we'll start drilling, national prices started to fall. Having regional special gas (and diesel) blends doesn't help, either. Since you're in the news business, I'm sure you know about the mid-south pipelines that took a hit from Ike, etc., and getting them back up to volume will even out your problem. Me, I'm paying about $3.49 for 87, up to 10% Ethenol blend. I never paid more than $3.99 (I got lucky, or blessed, as the spike over $4 was between purchases!) Not all alternative energy really makes sense, but some do, and we need to consider them all carefully! (How about methanol, instead of ethanol? How about coal gasification?) By the way, switching to natural gas only delays the problem: that's also a limited supply. We'll always need petrol products: no other heavy lube works so well! But we can solve the problem if we don't get too hysterical over it all...