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2006 Soap Box Archives Fuel Fanatics 05/19/06 I remember
the gas lines in the Seventies and the aggravation and I was in California during that time and saw the bay between San Francisco and Oakland with tankers setting low in the water so thick they looked like flies on a watermelon rind. Evidently they had run out of storage space and had nowhere to unload the fuel in their holds, and yet there were long lines at the filling stations. I don’t trust oil companies, never have and never will. I have nothing against them making money but when you do it at the misery of your fellow citizens I think it’s beyond the pale of decency. But however much we want to hang this situation on the big oil companies there’s enough blame left over to go around. There was a lot of talk about alternative fuels in the Seventies. We were told that we could manufacture ethanol out of corn and other plants and it’s been proven that we can. But what happened to the fever we had in the Seventies? Thirty years later we are still dependent on countries who hate us for our very existence. I don’t know about you but to me this is ridiculous and should be dealt with. Not tomorrow, but today, right now. There is more than enough oil in some of our western states to stop our dependency on any foreign country for our petroleum needs. But our politicians are so afraid of the environmental lobby that they all but hide under their desks when the subject is mentioned. And even if we could get the legislation passed to drill we don’t have the capacity to refine the crude into gasoline. Another little thing we can thank the environmental crowd for. Ok let’s do this. The very least the beltway bunch could do is create immediate and massive subsidies for start up companies who want to manufacture ethanol and other alternative fuels. And I’m not talking about some watered down, pitiful piece of legislation that meaninglessly unfolds over a period of years but something that would mean action next week. It’s already proven that the cars can run on ethanol and it is not only cheaper to mass manufacture but it burns many times cleaner that fossil fuels, which should make the environmental bunch ecstatic. You want to see the price of gas go down? Start a serious, comprehensive and immediate alternative fuel program. Just start getting massive amounts of ethanol on the market and watch the price of crude tumble. The oil companies say that it would cost fifty thousand dollars to convert existing gas stations to ethanol. Ok don’t convert. Who says that every gas station has to be a full service convenience store? All they need are a few pumps and they don’t have to be right downtown or on convenient corners. People would gladly drive a few miles out of the way to get cheaper fuel manufactured by Americans in American. Just imagine how our economy would flourish. Let China, India and Europe keep the terrorist states prospering. Brazil has already removed their gonads from the hands of the Middle East maniacs by producing their fuel from sugar cane. Why not the United States of America? I know that there are a few politicians who are in the pockets of the big oil companies but if the American public makes enough noise and threatens to send them home and make them earn an honest living I think even they could be convinced to get off their complacent posteriors and actually do something about this mess. Remember, only an act of Almighty God is more powerful than public opinion. Why don’t you let yours be known? Pray for our troops. What do you think? God Bless America Charlie
Daniels
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