By Mike Wilcox
Publisher
The price for a gallon of gasoline has gotten out of hand. In the last two weeks it has risen by more than $1 for both gasoline and propane. Economists and others in the know claim the increases won’t stop. They expect gasoline to be over $5 a gallon by midsummer.
The price of oil and gas has primarily fueled inflation. We need gas to get from Point A to B, but so do semi-trucks that carry most of the goods we buy in America. So do airplanes tranport passengers and goods everywhere. I paid nearly double for a plane ticket this past weekend.
I don’t know if this is intentional on the part of the administration to push us all towards electric, or they believe regulations are more important than inflation, but dramatically-increased costs are affecting us all. And to this guy solutions are rather simple.
First, I cannot believe our state and national governments have not lifted taxes at the pump. Consumers deserve the break as we struggle to balance the price of gas with other essentials like food and shelter.
Michigan has one of the highest gas taxes. Consumers pay 45 cents per gallon to the state as a privilege to pump gas. That’s a lot of moolah for state coffers. Additionally everyone pays the feds 18 cents for each gallon pumped.
Suspension of those taxes would go a long way towards helping consumers deal with the higher prices inflation has brought. This simple solution could be implemented immediately. It’s interesting that our leaders will not even entertain the solution.
Second, we need to encourage oil and gas businesses to pump more oil and gas. Instead we are doing the opposite. Regulations and non-decisions have hampered efforts to get more oil and gas to consumers.
Alaska, which has more reserves than any area in the world, is ready and willing to pump as much oil as our nation needs, but instead is mired in inflation and unemployment.
The administration insists however, we all need to suffer to hasten the “new green deal.” Electric vehicles are the future and that’s now. Buy electric or pay $5 or $7 or $10 at the pump, they insist.
As a Tesla owner for five years, I dispute that claim. The future is not now. There are many positives electric vehicles enjoy over their gas counterparts, but convenience is not one of them.
Few drivers know electric vehicles better than I do, having driven them for 70,000 to 100,000 miles all over the Eastern United States, and I can tell you they are fraught with pitfalls. To convert all drivers to electric within the next 10 years would be catastrophic. We simply do not have the infrastructure in place.
We do however, have solutions, as outlined to bring gas and oil prices down, thus curb inflation. Will our leaders act? Only time will tell.