Gas Prices Are On Fire

As I write this article the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline is just under $3.00 for a countrywide average. The price will only continue to rise as issues continue to heat up with Iran and the price of crude oil continues to climb.

I personally used to spend close to $400 per month on gas to commute back and forth to work and that was when gas was only $2.25 a gallon or so. I finally put a stop to that by starting my own website and working from home. Now I fill my tank once a month compared to 3-4 times per week.

I decided to write this article after seeing an interview on the Today Show with the CEO of Exxon. He was asked in this interview if his company was going to do anything to cut the prices for consumers this summer as prices get higher. He had to hold back from laughing. He went on to give the answer I figured he’d give, which was that they had a duty to shareholders to make them money. The interviewer said, “So, that is a NO then?” His response was, “We are in business to make money.”

So, knowing that the politicians are not doing anything to help you with gas prices and the companies are doing everything they can to milk you for every penny they can get, what can you do to reduce your fuel expenses? There are obvious answers to this question, such as buying a hybrid car or a more fuel efficient car in general. You can drive less just for fun. The days of cruising around are basically over. When I was in my teens I used to fill my tank and just cruise around and get lost. Not only was it relaxing for me to drive, I did some of my best thinking while driving, but I learned my way around very well. The days of joy riding are long gone.

I know my wife and I have started taking my Nissan Sentra out for family trips rather than her Nissan Murano. Her Murano gets excellent gas mileage for an SUV type vehicle but it costs nearly $60 to fill the tank as opposed to $31 for the Sentra.

Short of finding a new job closer to the home there is not much someone can do to lessen their fuel expenses. You need to get to work, you need to do errands on the weekends. Depending on the age of your kids you could potentially ride bikes to soccer or baseball practice (or whatever activity your kids are involved in). It is good exercise for you and the kids. Hopefully those locations are not very far from the house. Once again, if the oldest child is playing baseball and you have younger kids that can’t ride bikes this option is not available.

As American consumers our hands are tied. We are held hostage by the oil Czar’s of the world and the American oil corporations such as Exxon. Our politicians have not done enough to protect this from happening to us. Sure, they are all over the TV now “proposing” solutions to the gas price crisis but it is no good now.

Oil runs our lives. It helps to produce plastics, which mostly everything is made of now, electricity, gasoline for our vehicles, and much more. The price of oil continues to rise. The supply of oil is dwindling everyday as it is not a resource that is replaced. Once it is gone it is gone. I had previously asked what you can do to reduce your fuel expenses and there really is no answer to that. You may be able to get the hybrid cars, which are not really cost effective, a motorcycle, scooter, or ride a bike, if your life allows any of these options. The fact remains that you cannot escape the rising costs of oil. If you save on one end you will be hit on the other end. They will find a way to get their money.

Our only real way to make a difference is to change the way we vote and bring in politicians that actually have our best interest in mind instead of the big corporations. The Democrats like to say that the Republicans are the ones working for the rich and the big corporations but the truth is they both do. In fact, if you look at the stats of where the donations come from for the Presidential campaigns for those parties, the Democrats accept more from big corporations.

It may seem like this article had no direction, or maybe you understand what I was doing here. The only solution for us, as American citizens and consumers, is for us to vote the right people into office. All of the other talk, and other possible ways to reduce expenses, is nothing more than what I said, “talk”.