Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Into The Void With John Miller

Exactly what point were those 200 truckers, who went to Washington, D.C., trying to prove? Did they expect to gain sympathy for their plight where the price of diesel fuel is concerned?

Ain't gonna happen. It's hard to feel sorry for truckers when gasoline prices are even higher than diesel and the price is expected to climb at least 20 more cents per gallon before it starts going down.

This isn't another tirade against truckers; no matter how it may sound. They do perform a necessary service in the delivery of goods, but don't need to whine about the high price of diesel.

Maybe if they, and all other motorists, would take a simple piece of advice they's all be able to save money at the gas pumps. Still, it's hard to by sympathetic when being passed by a low flying semi on the interstate.

Enough about truckers. The simple piece of advice for anyone who drives is to SLOW DOWN. It doesn't take a genius to know gas mileage improves with the reduction of speed. Just ease back a bit on the gas pedal.

Remember, it's only been in the last four years the speed limit has been 65 mph for trucks and 70 mph for all other vehicles. From the last 1970s until then the NATIONAL speed limit was 55, the old double nickel. Perhaps our friendly federal government will consider instituting it again until this current crisis is over.

Another thing the feds can do is ease up on the federal gas tax somewhat. In 1993, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (read tax) created a 43 cents per gallon fuel surtax for "deficit reduction". However, this tax remains in place even though there is an alleged budget surplus on the national level. A drop of 10 cents a gallon in this tax would help the working poor considerably, as well as helping ease the burden on the trucking industry.

What, exactly, is the U.S. government doing to help its citizenry as crude oil prices rise at unmerciful rates? Apparently very little.

President Bill Clinton is adamant about keeping the U.S. oil reserves untouched. As there are only 565 million barrels stored, it is not a bad idea. The stockpile would only help for a short while and the people need a long-term solution.

This crude, as I understand it, is being held in reserve in case the U.S. military needs it for emergency situations.

The answer, simply put, is for Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Mexico, Venezuela and other oil producing nations to increase production. At the time of this writing the world is using about 77 million barrels of oil a day, while production has been cut back to 75 million barrels a day.

It doesn't take an Alan Greenspan to see what's happening. In plain language this is nothing more than price gouging and profiteering. OPEC could easily be seen as the "godfather" of the petroleum mafia doling out its blessings as it sees fit.

Personally, I blame former Pres. George "the Wuss" Bush for this mess. When he sent troops to the Persian Gulf to defend Kuwait's oil fields (and this was the reason for the Gulf War), he did nothing to protect U.S. interests there in the future. Our men and women who died there did so needlessly. After all, Bush could have had Gen. "Stormin'" Norman Schwarzkopf and Gen. Colin Powell take the Iraqis out of the picture permanently, but he didn't have the cajones.

In World War II Gen. George Patton urged Pres. Harry Truman to let him take the Third Army into Moscow and pound the heck out of the Russians. Truman, saying the Russians had been our allies, refused. The end result was almost 50 years of cold war and having the threat of nuclear war hanging over the world's head.

Will Bush's legacy be a half century of global domination by OPEC? Let's hope not.