Why did the caribou cross the road?

...because their habitat was destroyed by profit-mongering US oil companies! Gosh, that's not very funny.

Yes, the price of gas is very high right now. That sucks. Most everyone would agree with that. But will drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Reserve solve that problem? No.

Here's the premise: we need to drill for oil in Alaska to lower gas prices!

And here are the reasons that will not work:

• It will take years to get any oil from ANWR, so why would that help oil prices now?
  
• The total oil coming from ANWR will be about 1% of the world oil supply. Why should we think that will affect oil prices by more than 1%?
  
• OPEC controls the world's oil prices, so if we actually manage to produce more oil, they will just produce less, keeping the prices the same.
  
• Even if somehow we could put a dent in the oil supply, why would Big Oil give us a break on the price??? They could do that RIGHT NOW! But do they? NO! They continue to make record profits while we all suffer the consequences.
  

Congress could force oil companies to charge less money for gas. But they won't do it, because they get big campaign contributions from Big Oil!

Big Oil could charge less for gas, and maybe just for one quarter they could have just average billion dollar profits, rather than record multi-billion dollar profits. But they won't do it, because then where would the CEos get all the 100 dollar bills to light their cigars?

Good potential solutions may be:

• alternative energy sources
  
• drive less
  
• more fuel efficient cars
  
• take public transportation
  
• 4 day work week
  

Unfortunately, those things won't happen soon enough, because Americans like to drive their gas guzzlers. And this problem hurts the lower class the most. After all, $400 per month for gas hurts a lot more if your gross income is $2000 per month than if it is $6000 per month. So politicians don't give a crap because they all make tons of money. The US auto industry is reacting too slowly and they will soon be gone because of it.

Didn't we encounter the very same problem in the 1970s? Everyone was going crazy about solar power and other alternative energy sources. Then we were all fat and happy in the 80s and 90s and forgot all about it. Maybe if we spent billions of dollars on research instead of war, we would already have an answer.

Maybe McCain will follow Bush's lead and send everyone an extra tax refund - an economic incentive. Unfortunately, that's just giving you back your own money.

- schneid