How To Drop Gasoline a Dollar a Gallon in One Day
Al Ritter
The EPA has successfully increased the price of gasoline little by little since the inception of the agency in 1970. Yearly mandates have not only added to the cost of fuels, but are slowly forcing an end to the use of fossil fuels. What started as an admirable aim to curb emissions has now blossomed into a headlong assault on the American economy.
Fossil fuels represent the largest single item any country either imports or exports. Source materials may or may not be the determining factor to whether a country is forced into importing or not. Different Presidents set the tone of the EPA each year as to the ferocity of the agency and also to their agenda during his term.
The President we have now has set the tone to full attack mode on the average American. It was no secret that Barack Obama claimed as a candidate that he would “necessarily bankrupt the coal industry.” It should be no surprise that he is implementing that aim to the fullest of his ability. The president hasn’t asked congress to make or change laws thereby accomplishing his goals through legislature. He has given the EPA the green light to implement his agenda through mandates approved by nobody but himself.
The EPA regulates so many things in the energy sector, it isn’t even funny anymore. I’m sure you remember when the cost of diesel fuel was less than the price of regular gasoline. Did you ever wonder why that changed to the point of where it cost more now than premium gasoline? The answer is the EPA. In a move to reduce the emission of sulfur dioxide the EPA mandated the immediate reduction of sulfur in diesel fuel, thus adding yet one more refining process to the cost.
Gasoline has also been targeted in another attack. Seasonal blending is a term used to describe the ability of gasoline to burn cleanly in temperature changes. One blend for summer, one blend for winter. Not many people know that the winter blend actually offers less miles per gallon than the summer blend, but that really doesn’t matter to the EPA, their concern is strictly environmental.
Add these mandates to the absurdly ridiculous addition of ethanol to gasoline blends started by President Bush and the price of fuel skyrockets.
What we really need is an EPA that takes the delicate balance of emissions and compares that the negative effect it will have on our economy before making mandate changes. Forcing such changes on a struggling economy serves nobody but the arrogance of a single man bent on removing fossil fuels from his country.
Until the technologies are there to offer alternative fuels on a comparable cost basis an agenda of destroying the use of fossil fuels should be put on the back burner. Only an illogical thinker destroys one industry without a replacement in the wings. Claiming that you are going green should mean you have a viable alternative, not just an idea. We can’t run America’s tractor trailers on wind and solar power, that is not only unrealistic, it is downright foolish.
Relax the EPA mandates on fuels tomorrow and the price WILL drop a dollar a gallon in one month. Increase the mandates silently and off the radar and the price of gasoline will continue to climb. In much the same way the economy was blamed on Bush……Obama will blame the fuel price increase on the oil companies……..surprised?...........no I didn’t think so!
