Jumpin' Gas Prices! It's a Flash! Flash! Flash!

Too cold to start a fire

I'm burning diesel, burning dinosaur bones - Rusty Cage, Soundgarden 1991

In 1973, the bloated, complacent, and backwards thinking U.S. Automotive industry took a wallop when OPEC introduced an Oil embargo and took steps to wrest control of the oil market from US and European backed oil companies.

American cars of the 1970's were ridiculous monstrosities and American automakers weren't invested in the type of innovation and design investment necessary to stay competitive.  The 30 years after WW2 had led to a malaise of over-confidence.  German and especially Japanese car makers were ready to pounce on the small car market, with advanced vehicles that not only were far more efficient and better cars but, also what a large segment of the customer base in the United States wanted.

Of course, since then the sad truth is the American car industry has still not learned the lessons of 1973.  Today, gas prices across the country are reaching the highest real cost as well as the highest relative price ever.  And are drivers in the United States equipped to handle this? 

Nope.

You see American car shopper sucks or to be fairer, consistently makes the bad vehicle choice, especially when given the chance to make that choice.  Every time gas prices relax a little bit, Americans go out and buy giant gas guzzling monster vehicles.  Now maybe it's a symbiotic relationship between car makers and consumer.  As the giant land yachts of the 1970's didn't go away they were simply jacked up and retitled Sport Utility Vehicles and Trucks.  Everyone wants a big truck.  Even so-called midsized trucks like the Ford Ranger, Honda Ridgeline, or Chevy Colorado would be big trucks in an earlier era.  Of course, some really small Utes have just been reintroduced; the Hyundai Santa Cruz and Ford Maverick (also as a hybrid) but, it's way late to finally introduce these smaller more efficient models.

Additionally, while the hyper car market is tiny and geared towards the super rich, it's moving to electric vehicles.  But, the "affordable" luxury and performance market isn't getting great gas mileage either.

Brazilian Fascists love TrumPutin 
and hate President Biden and Trudeau
I guess Glenn Greenwald is having
a real impact!

So, thanks to Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, energy prices are spiking across the globe.  And Americans are once again moaning about paying at the pump.

Unbelievable.  Or... in reality it isn't... because the American dream of cheap energy derived from fossil fuels is yet again another cornerstone of the endless Republican assault on the United States.   

43 years ago President Jimmy Carter, a good and decent and deeply religious man put solar panels on the White House.  President Carter called for 20% of American power to be procured from solar In Year 2000.

This was a smart, forward-thinking plan and one which would have helped usher in the electric car revolution far earlier as well as combat what executives and scientists working for the fossil fuels industry  already knew in the 1970's; that climate change was going to destroy the planet and kill millions (or more) people.

Instead, what we got in 1979 was an Iranian Revolution because the Shah of Iran, whom the United States and British had placed into power in 1953 to help the oil from Persia flow, was a brutal dictator and murderer.  The Hostage Crisis opened the doors to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave for the villainous Republican Party. 

And in 1981, Ronnie Raygun stepped into the White House with his oil-drenched hairdo, phony cowboy demeanor, and chickenhawk warmonger swagger and promptly took the solar panels off the roof and declared the United States would never break its' addiction to fossil fuels or foreign entanglements.  Reagan was already a brain-addled fraud in the pocket of Big Oil, before being shot and suffering brain damage.

So Reagan's handlers told him to open areas of the United States to exploitation and ruin and in 1986, Raygun gave a speech "crowing" about how "freedom", "the marketplace", "the entrepreneurs and businessmen and women of America" performed miracles after he decontrolled Oil from The Government.

No Eternal Allies only
Eternal Interest in Middle East Oil

What a fucking asshole.  Reagan's fraudulence set the course to tie the United States to the Middle East and for the next 40 years the American people have suffered because of it.  Reagan incited and assured Saddam Hussein the US would support him and Iraq against Iran.  Well that led to 30 years of violence in Iraq and Iran didn't it? 

And opening the United States to haphazard oil drilling ushered in disastrous oil spills via the Exxon Valdez (1989), BP Deepwater Horizon (2010), too say nothing of all the lesser spills you've never heard about, and the monstrously destructive 21st century fracking boom with all it's accompanying environmental destruction.

But, this post is already too long and I've barely touched the disastrous W(orst President Ever) Maladministration drilling policies or Former Republican Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and all his associated crimes*, misappropriation of funds, and abuse of authority.  And that's the problem; it takes a lot of reading and the acknowledgment of background information which bad actors on the Right are unwilling to engage in because they've mastered the art of the Meme and the bumper sticker and conservatives have entered an Era of having their own facts.  

They simply assert High Gas Prices Biden Fault shorthand.  So, instead of getting a fuel efficient vehicle or investing in an electric vehicle, a whole bunch of Americans who asserted it was their right to get the gaudiest, biggest, least practical, non-efficient Truck are now crying about high gas prices and petulantly pouting that mean Pete Buttigieg said they should buy an electric vehicle  

*- Career Criminal Traitor Trump showed Republicans they had been a bunch of "Suckers and Losers", when you have authority you commit crimes and you keep committing crimes non-stop because the media isn't interested in following them all up.

Fracking is Wonderful unless it threatens the property of Rex Tillerson CEO of Exxon Mobil

Ah NIMBY(Not In My Backyard) is an old acronym. But, everything old is new again.

Update (02/27): 

Chris Hayes interviewed Lou Allstadt a former Executive of Exxon (pre merger) who has been fighting Fracking for over 5 years.

As Oil Companies push Hyrdaulic Fracturing (Fracking), the literal cracking and destruction of the earth's subsurface in order to extract petrochemicals, the Petroleum Pigs ignore the Thousands of Americans being harmed, the toxic fouling to the water table, and the political efforts of local communities and municipal governments to curb their reckless and rapacious behavior.

Unless! It threatens the Property of a Rich Man.

Rex Tillerson the CEO of Exxon Mobil has joined a lawsuit to stop the construction of Hydraulic Fracking Tower next to his 83-acre horse ranch.

The tower, being built by Cross Timbers Water Supply, would rise 15 stories, the Journal says. It's adjacent to Tillerson's horse ranch and not far from an 18-acre homestead. Tillerson is devoting considerable time to the matter: he sat for three hours in the lawsuit last May and attended an all-day mediation session in September, besides his Town Council appearance. 

Among the others opposing the project are those who are not exactly known for environmental crusading: former U.S.House Majority Leader Dick Armey and his wife are the lead plaintiffs.

See, Fracking like the Koch Brothers Petcoke piles is something done to Poor People.

But, for years duped and gullible Conservatives have been saying Fuck the EPA and all Regulations because Republicans have convinced them that it is only by lawsuits, and not by evil government regulation, issues like Fracking, Petcoke or other gross violations should be stopped or addressed. 

Of course when Real Americans realize they don't have a few spare million dollars lying around to bring a powerful lawsuit? Well, that's just what you get in conservative America. Justice and Government is reserved for the Rich. One of the main missions by the modern Republicans Party is to let Working Class Americans know They have no Friend in Government.

Conservatives idolize the Rich and hate the Poor that's why when local municipal governments have tried to stop Petroleum Pigs from Fracking them, Republicans and Conservatives swoop in with the awesome power of government to thwart the will of the people, to harm as many Americans as possible and to transfer money into the hands of the rich.

Frack Baby Frack! The Petroleum Pigs Newest Evil

Fracking, the process of forcing thousands of gallons of water and toxic chemicals at high pressure into Shale beds to extract Natural Gas reserves, is the latest indignity the Petroleum Pigs have unleashed upon people.

Like all problems with Oil Companies, the issue is one of sovereignty, they don't recognize anyone's and simply influence governments at all levels to give them a free hand This map of New York State shows the increasing number of Municipalities fighting to keep Fracking away.

But, Multi-National Oil Conglomerates don't care. They've been destroying ecosystems and people in Nigeria, Ecuador, Azerbaijan for decades why would they think of Americans as any different? For the destruction wrought by fracking is not going to affect them. It's well beyond NIMBY, it's not just the richest members of Oil Corporations, but most involved in the Oil business, who live outside the areas affected and don't come into contact with any of the toxic by products.

“Giving local governments the power to regulate would be the kiss of death for natural-gas development in New York state,” Tom West, an attorney in Albany who represents Denver- based Anschutz Exploration Corp. and other drilling companies, said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg News. Anschutz Exploration Corporation is owned by Philip Anshutz, a full-fledged member of the 1% the 34th richest person in America, and credited with the George W. Bush White House with killing the 2001 Kyoto Protocol and in 2010 used financial legerdemain to hide his obscene profits, until a U.S. Tax Court judge ruled he owed $94 million in taxes.

A member of the 1% who thinks Regulation is bad, is a tax cheat, and makes money off of Corporate Welfare. Hmmm, seems to fit a pattern.

A recent spate of earthquakes in the Youngstown, Ohio area are the direct result of fracking. But, don't worry because minor earthquakes are the least of your trouble if a fracking operation sets up near your home in Ohio.

The two Allardale Park gas wells were drilled by Wildcat Drilling LLC for Ohio Valley Energy, based in Austintown. The county park is east of the Mangans’ house and near the Bath Township border.

The wells, about 1,500 feet apart, were being drilled to a depth of 3,700 feet and cemented on the outside for environmental protection at the time that the Mangans’ problems surfaced. The vertical wells were then fracked.

On Sept. 29, 2008, Mangan and wife, Sandy, found that their drinking water well had gone dry at the same time that a company was drilling for natural gas at Allardale Park about a half mile away.

When the water returned to the Mangans’ well in five days, it had an unpleasant taste and a rotten-egg scent. It was salty. It bubbled. It contained methane gas and a gray slurry of cement.

Ohio Valley Energy drew headlines in 2007, after a house exploded east of Cleveland in Geauga County.

In Ohio, state lawmakers can overturn local ordinances. So even if you manage to band together within your local community and stave off the fracking wells. Philip Anschutz or some else of his 1% ilk is simply going to jerk the chain on their obedient lap dog Ohio Governor Republicon John Kasich and his slavish guardians in the Republicon dominated Ohio Legislature and get the rights to frack you. Frack Baby Frack!

The wells won't be anywhere near Kasich's Governor's mansion nor will they affect his speaking fees from the Cato Instiutite or Faux News position post-governorship. And Philp Anschutz is safely ensconced far away from water laden with benzene, gas, and any of the other toxic by-products of his evil hand.