Opening A Can of Worms...Politics - Well Sort of.....

One of the advantages to marrying someone not from your own country is the different view you get on things that are going on in your country. And being that I'm married to an Englishman, there are some things that Gareth sees from a different perspective that I don't always see.

On the long drive to and from Burlington this past weekend we did a lot of talking about politics, I think spurred on by the constant coverage on talk-radio about the surging oil prices and how the prices at the pump are shooting through the roof.

Now to someone like my husband who hails from the UK where petrol prices have been high his entire life, petrol where we live coming dangerously near $3.00 a gallon doesn't really phase him. I asked him if $5.00 a gallon would make him tense and he said it wouldn't...not when he's paying what equates to almost $7 per gallon in the UK at the moment. And I have always maintained that I won't complain about petrol prices here in the states because I know what it's like in in the UK...but hells bells, it sure is getting high and what are all the people who make little better than minimum wage, or hell even $10 an hour, and have to drive 20+ miles back and forth every day to work, and who have a family, or just a life really, what are those folks going to do when it starts to cost them $60+ a week just to fill up their cars?

And for folks like us, living along the east coast who heat our homes with fuel oil, this is another huge problem. Just where I live along the coast, the agency that helps folks out come winter time with heating bills has already received three times the amount of calls for assistance and we aren't even into fall yet. And it's because the rates to lock in fuel oil for the winter are OUTRAGEOUS! Gareth and I have locked in at $2.36 per gallon (just took care of that today) but that's up .70 cents per gallon from last year. Thankfully we are starting off with a full oil tank and probably won't have to fill up again until December or possibly even January.

But I got to thinking about oil prices and the nations who control them and there are a few things about this all that confuse and even scare me.

Here we sit, worried about terrorists from the middle east coming into the country and blowing something/someone else up. But what about the oil companies in the middle east who hold everyone hostage with the insane oil prices, while the CEO's of these companies are making money hand over fist and here we sit, dependant on them. And I'll admit, I'm more conservative than liberal but it makes me nervous that President Bush is so close to the men in the Saudi government, who we get most of our oil from, yet I guess his relationship with them means little in regards to getting them to lower the price? I know it's not that simple, and I know that China is really driving the price with their insane oil needs, and that India is right behind them, but still.....talk about terrorists.....19 of the 9/11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia....and we STILL get all our oil from them???

I guess I'm saying I don't understand this relationship between President Bush and the Saudis. In my mind it seems masochistic, co-dependant and dysfunctional.

I am not particularily articulate or really even that intelligent when it comes to politics, I just see things happening that make me wonder about the long-term stability of the US economy. And I know it's not just our economy that's feeling the effects of the skyrocketing oil prices. I know the UK, while they produce their own petrol is experiencing higher prices due to this as well. Although, I'm not exactly sure of the mechanics of it and why their fuel prices jump when OPEC pushes prices higher being that they are not dependant on OPEC.

And I do know that demand pushes the prices higher as well and with the demand from countries like China, India and the US pushing it higher that the US shares a large part of the responsibility as well.

But having said all that, I don't know the answer. I don't think hybrid autos are the answer in total....not when it costs as much as a new economy car to replace the batteries in one of those things. And I know I bare some personal responsibility because I choose to drive a car that is not so fuel efficient. While it's by no means a gas-guzzling urban assault vehicle (ie-SUV), it's still not up there with cars that rank among the most efficient. But it works for me right now.

I do try to do my part where other things are concerned. I recycle (for that matter, I live in Maine where most of the nations enviro-nazi's live) I am aware of the products I buy and consume and how they contribute or detract from the environment...and I try not to be wasteful.

But even all that isn't enough. I think we need politicians who will stop pussy-footing around and invest the time, energy and money into alternative means of fueling our nation, means that make us less dependent on the middle east countries and I think we need to find a balance between conservation and our needs as a country.

I don't apologize for supporting the drilling/exploration in the ANWR. No one is doing anything else right now, and we have to do SOMETHING.

Awwww well, I think I have just about exhausted myself for the evening and while there is more, I need to think on it a bit.