As we all painfully know, gasoline prices have soared from approximately $1.50 a gallon to as high as $4.25 a gallon since the Bush administration came into office. Many believe that this sudden rise in the price gouging of oil is due to the war in Iraq – a sort of sanction placed upon us for our continuing military presence and warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan. But is this the reason? President Bush argues ” I’ve set a great goal for our country, and that is to reduce our dependence on oil by investing in technologies that will produce abundant supplies of clean and renewable energy.”

Attending an International Renewable Energy Conference in March, President Bush said, “America has got to change its habits. We’ve got to get off oil.” Please do correct me if I’m wrong, but why are we being forced to pay higher prices for oil — as oil companies reap the benefits in skyrocketing profits — before these so called ‘abundant supplies of clean and renewable energy’ sources have been identified and set into motion with some measure of success? I can’t help but wonder, who exactly in our current administration are investors in the oil industry?

I do agree. We need to find alternatives to oil, and relinquish our dependency on foreign oil that is only supporting terrorists with the means to attack the multitude of innocent bystanders who have nothing to do with, and very often, do not even support the current war in Iraq. After all, this is the very result of all wars; the resultant deaths of innocent men, women and children. But not all of our oil suppliers are originating out of the Middle East. Alaska alone has billions of barrels of untapped oil lying beneath her uncharted territories. And as stringent as our laws are in America to safely drill and yet also protect the surrounding environment, I see no reason why we should not attempt to tap into the natural resources there. Obviously, this is no alternative to oil, but the one most effective alternative to which I am aware of is marijuana. Yet, this is sadly illegal; and therefore not really an alternative.

And so we have solar energy and hybrid cars. We also have public transportation systems and we always have the option to and even the incentive to car pool, as many of our nations highways are being given extra lanes especially for those who are involved in car pooling. And, many of our Fortune 500 companies are offering the advertisement and management of car pooling groups for such employees who volunteer for such ventures.

However, I still do not understand the record breaking costs of oil when it is coinciding with record breaking profits for oil companies. And although this is one of the hot topics discussed in our current election process, I’m still not seeing any individual efforts to protest this very costly oil ‘crisis’ that we are suffering from. I really don’t see this as a supply and demand problem due to a true shortage that is yielding the large profits being made by oil investors; who by the way, must be thrilled to see the ‘no end in sight’ lack of effort to end the war. It’s a sort of Enron corruption once again rearing its ugly head. Ironically, I implore us all to use the same Enron slogan used for years within the corrupt company, and by all means necessary, “Ask Why!”