Carol Greenberg
Conservative Outlook
2/28/2011
Gasoline hit almost $4/gallon at some Chicago stations this past weekend, and as one can well imagine, folks aren’t happy.
Last year at this time Chicagoans were paying an average of $2.84/gallon and with the 10 cent rise in the last few days this is the highest cost of gas since 2008. According to the same article the average price of gas for the rest of the nation for regular unleaded is $3.37.
According to analyst Peter Beutel the crises and events in the Middle East, mainly Libya and Egypt are adding to nervousness in the industry which has crept the price of a barrel of oil up to $97.
Approaches to energy issues and the fate of oil and natural gas drilling and coal mining versus ramping up “renewable energies” has largely fallen down party lines. The majority of Republicans are in favor of using our domestic energy fossil fuels to help the US become energy independent while President Obama and the Democrats are mostly concerned about the “clean energies.”
Now at least one Democrat may be having a change of heart. According to the NewCanaan on-line in Connecticut, Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT #4) has been listening to drivers’ woes and their complaints of $4/gallon gas. While opposing drilling in ANWR and some sensitive areas in the Gulf, Himes now states:
“I do think we need to move away from [drilling], but give me a choice between getting it here and importing it from Saudi Arabia and I’ll take getting it from here any day,” he said.
