After some thought on oil and gasoline prices, I have concluded we are left with a conundrum. Oil supplies are dwindling, and refinery capacities cannot keep up with international demand. If we reduce our consumption of oil/gas, the oil companies will raise prices, not lower them. With no control on prices and profits, the companies are not going to surrender any profit. I don’t think we will see the cost of gas significantly lower, ever.
The solution is alternative fuel/energy. Ethanol seems like the major alternative we are faced with. Unfortunately, it involves a refinery and distillation process much like crude oil. Guess who is equipped to handle this process and the monetary capital to invest in and control it (and probably get government subsidies)? Unless and until oil and gas companies are regulated and overseen like our other utilities, we will not see lower fuel prices, now or in the future. Profits are one thing, profiteering is another.
Rob Dietz
Arlington
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