Big Oil's Big Bucks

Yet again, the nation's largest oil company has posted record profits while we're all scratching our heads trying to figure out how in the world we're going to afford to keep gas in our tanks... It has me thinking, should the United States lift the ban on offshore oil drilling?

Here's what I think...

Yes, the United States should definitely lift the ban on offshore drilling for oil in light of current all-time high gas prices. Further, the US should do anything within it's power to alleviate this situation because of the overall negative impact the high gas prices are having on the economy.

Rising gas prices have raised transportation and delivery costs, resulting in higher prices on consumer goods. These skyrocketing prices have also trickled down to nearly every other aspect of consumer life, causing prices to become so unbearably high that the average person has to think long and hard before spending a penny. Having to decide whether to purchase a gallon of milk or a gallon of gas is placing undue hardship on the American people.

If lifting the ban on offshore drilling would help decrease the prices at the pump, it's a small price to pay to help our ailing economy and should be done immediately. This, of course, should be only one of the steps the US takes to drive down gas prices.

Another approach should be releasing some of the reserves as President Clinton did during his term when gas prices began to get out of control. This approach immediately corrected the problem, leaving me wondering why this hasn't been tried this time. Surely someone somewhere is doing some behind-the-scenes work on these issues, but we consumers certainly haven't seen any results or even any real efforts being made.

Another option would be for the government to step in and do something about the fact that the major oil companies are posting record profits at the same time they are charging more than ever for gasoline. Claims of price gouging need to be thoroughly and seriously investigated. Because of our dependence on gasoline, some form of government control might be in order. While we are a country built on capitalism and free enterprise, the fact that oil companies are making billions upon billions of dollars in profit while the average working class person is struggling to scrape together enough change to fill their gas tank.

Basically, anything that will work should be done. A multi-faceted approach to this problem should yield results, bringing down the high cost of gasoline and freeing up consumer cash for spending on other things. This would, in turn, spur on our currently slugging economy helping us rise out of the current recession everyone seems to want to deny we are in.