Severe Gas Pains

Car sickness is the feeling you get when you have to fill the car with gas.
The Misanthrope, curmudgeon

Are we the people being punished for Bush’s fight to get his energy bill passed? The government projected that gasoline prices would surge even higher in coming weeks and remain high through the summer, a forecast underscoring both the economic effect of the sharp rise in energy costs and growing political risks for President Bush.

"We are concerned about rising gasoline prices and rising energy prices," said Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary in the New York Times. "They are a drag on our growing economy. That's all the more reason why Congress needs to act to pass the president's comprehensive energy strategy that he outlined four years ago."

I don’t believe they are not the least bit concerned about the consumer. This is just Bush being stubborn until he gets his way. The Energy Information Administration, an arm of the Energy Department, said it expected the price of unleaded regular gasoline to hit a peak national average of $2.35 a gallon in May and to average $2.28 from April through September. Last week the average price was $2.22.

In my neighborhood I can tell you that Chevron’s middle grade is $2.65 today, and it has been going up 10 cents a week for the past three weeks. The local TV news announces gas prices continue to raise, but demand remains high. Hello! Are we supposed to start hitchhiking to work?

Government officials rationalize that the price of gasoline is still a small part of the cost of driving a car, including insurance and car payments, and that for a typical car, driven 12,000 miles a year and getting 20 miles a gallon, the increase would mean about $180 in higher annual costs. Considering that I drive more than twice that amount in a year that is substantial chunk of change.