Gas prices. For the past few days, those two words have been enough spike anyone’s blood pressure. And now, everyone is calling for somebody’s head, usually the oil companies. For a while, I was right there on O’Reilly’s “They’re gouging us” bandwagon, but now I’m not so sure. Sure, Exxon/Mobil’s 400 million retirement package to their CEO is about as obscene as it gets, but let’s stretch those numbers out: It is estimated that the United States consumes approximately 400 million gallons per day. So, let’s give that retirement package back to the consumers. That equals one dollar off per gallon for one day. ONE day! How many people would actually notice that?

So, for what else can we hang the oil companies for?

We can’t blame them for the lack of refineries. Environmentalists (spelled: bureaucracy ) have prevented new oil refinery construction in the United States for about 30 years now. Limited refinery production means higher prices when the refineries can’t meet growing demands. Also, thanks to environmentalists, special gasoline blends have been mandated, further slowing down production capability.

We can’t blame them for the lack of exploration and drilling, which would increase our supply. Go hang the bureaucrats.

We can’t blame them for the obscene taxes. The average tax placed on one gallon of gas is 50 cents, with some states over 60 cents. It’s not in your government’s best interest to lower gas prices, is it? 400 million gallons of gas per day multiplied by 50 cents per gallon equals $200,000,000 per day.

We can blame the oil companies, the Republicans, the Democrats, the increased demand here as well as in other countries, but the bottom line is we must blame ourselves as long as we still have a lead foot when we climb behind the wheel and as long as we don’t push for increased capacity for oil and for the development of alternate fuels.