Here & There Column 2-21-12

Gasoline Prices Continue Going Up

Yes, we know it's no secret that prices at the gas pumps continue to go up even though U.S. crude supplies have increased and benchmark crude oil last week fell 86 cents to $96.98 per barrel.
And what a difference we find here in New York State when it's announced that the national average for regular gas is now at $3.48.
What is happening to our national energy independence?....demand is down yet prices go up.....it just doesn't make sense.
U.S. motorists are bracing for even higher prices at the pump and every year gas prices tend to rise when warmer weather and school vacations lure more people onto the highways.
But most folks I talk to say that independence from dictatorships and foreign oil must become a serious topic and that there should be increased domestic supplies.
Folks are speaking out about this subject and generally they are saying that we must expand American energy production and the majority of people we spoke to favor the Keystone XL pipeline.
The fact that we in this country must cope with ballooning gas prices and energy vulnerability while living in a country with some of the richest untapped energy resources on the planet is an absurdity.
Statistics show that the U.S. is sitting on enough technically recoverable oil to power us at current rates of consumption for over 250 years and those estimates suggest we have 1.4 trillion barrels of oil......or 1.7 trillion when adding in the resources of Mexico and Canada.
Goldman Sachs in a recent analysis projects that the United States could become the world leader in oil production by 2017.
America must wake up and stop banning additional development of our most promising oil and gas resources.
The potential to increase American oil and gas supplies is real folks as this country must become energy secure and independent.
With the potential for things to explode in the Middle East a lot of oil-producing countries in the world are not that politically stable and this should be a strong signal for America to increase domestic supplies with expanding energy productions.
We must embrace strategy to use the oil, natural gas, coal, bio-fuels, solar, oil shale and wind that we have available to us right here in the U.S.
Folks are sick and tired hearing that political and business issues are factors that forecast what our oil and gasoline prices will be.