Oil Watchdog

04/19/07 by dugan

There’s a lot of talk lately about drivers "getting used to" gasoline over $3 a gallon, and in parts of California over $4. Not true. No un-rich driver gets used to the dent that $60 fill-ups put in the budget.

They may be responding like the battered spouse who dabs some concealer on the bruises and tries not to think about it. In drivers’ case, they’re giving up on politicians who won’t stand up for them.

To make change, however, it’s better to have a long memory and hold a grudge.

Remember, for instance, last year. When gasoline prices spiked, the Bush administration issued a bogus "investigation" of price-gouging, concluding with a straight face that oil companies weren’t profiteering. Congress grumbled and did nada. Gov. Schwarzenegger ordered up his own pulled punch from California’s limp Energy Commission, which admitted that it  had too little information and no clout to change things. What else should we expect from a governor who’s taken more than $3 millon from oil companies, and is still raking it in?

A price-gouging bill that would have gone a few inches toward stopping the California price spiral died at the hands of its author, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. He killed it on the last day of the legislative session, preventing a vote that would have held lawmakers accountable.

One thing ast year’s half-baked political response did do was prove that lawmakers have ears. Keep letting them know that we’re not "used to it." That we aren’t blind to the obscene profits being made on our backs, and we see the link between Big Oil’s political influence and the silence in Washington (Rep. Dennis Kucinich excepted, thanks) and Sacramento. Outrage does echo into the political debate.

When you see a story here or elsewhere that strikes a chord, from global warming to gasoline price manipulation, write a letter to the editor or a blog or bug your elected officials directly. Time plus pressure equals change.

Just don’t get out the concealer stick and hope it’ll get better. That’s the response Big Oil is counting on.

Contact links:

U.S. Congress (e-mail contact link only. See individual members’ sites for address, phone and fax numbers)

U.S. Senate

California Assembly (click on "find my district" if you don’t know yours)

California Senate (Click on "your Senator")