wrote in message
ups.com...

Harry Krause wrote:
Regular grade gasoline was $3.05 a gallon yesterday at several docks in
Annapolis. Diesel was $2.61 to $2.65.

Thanks, Dubya.


It's a real stretch to try to blame George Bush for five decades of
over consumption, five decades of refusal to seriously pursue
alternative energy sources, five decades of ass-kissing BIG OIL and THE
BIG THREE automakers. He can be held accountable for the things like
the gutting of CAFE standards during his administration. He can be
criticized for developing a national "energy policy" that concentrates
primarily on squeezing the last few drops of oil out of the ground and
excusing his family's (and other) oil companies from taxes in the
process. He can be resented, a bit, because he and his family are
getting filthy rich(er) every time the price of a bbl of oil goes up a
buck. He clearly has no personal incentive to wish for lower oil
prices, but it isn't fair to lay the blame for the current pricing on
Bush.

The SUV aspect of this whole thing is amusing. Not that SUV's are
primarily responsible for the high prices of oil- but if you remember
the last few years every time some environmentalist suggested that it
might not be in the national interest to offer vehicles that got less
than 10 mpg the right wing radio shows all began to squeal, (on cue),
"we need to let the free market decide what people will buy and drive".
I hope those same apologists have the same "free market" attitude
toward the price of oil. You're seeing $3 at the marina- on the west
coast we're seeing $3 at a lot of regular gas stations (for high
octane).


I had an interesting thought this morning when I glanced at the copy of
"Unrestricted Warfa China's Master Plan to Destroy America " sitting on
my nightstand.

China has pegged its currency to the dollar, causing it to be artificially
deflated. If they allowed it to float, several things would happen...one of
which would be that our trade deficit with China would likely fall. The
other thing that would happen would be that gas would be cheaper in China.
Even with a drop in the cost of gas in China, the general consensus is that
a rise in the value of the yuan would be disastrous for China's export
economy...particularly in the short-term.

What if the price of gas was being intentionally inflated so that the
Chinese response would be the unpegging of the yuan to the dollar? As much
as our economy depends on low fuel costs, the Chinese economy is even more
dependent on it. Why? Because fuel costs make up a larger percentage of
the overall expense of doing business over there. Employee costs are
extremely high over here, and low over there. But fuel costs are the same.
The easiest way to diminish China's competitive advantage is to raise the
expenses that have a larger effect on their economy than ours.