Lower Energy Costs

Wow, ask and ye shall receive. It was just yesterday that I asked for guest bloggers. This guest post comes from a reader named Jim Everett. The post is a little more political than I would normally publish but I think the subject is relevant to us all given current gas prices. It is definitely opinionated so I would expect some controversy over this one. At least he didn't bash pizza.

I've intended to write a letter on this subject, that could be forwarded to our representatives in Congress and the Senate, but hadn't gotten it done. Energy prices are hitting everyone's pocketbooks hard on a personal level, and strangling our economy as a whole. It's hard to believe that no action has been taken by our lawmakers. All they have done is drag the oil company executives in to grill them on national TV, about why their companies are making so much money. This deflects the attention away from them(the lawmakers), and their lack of action, by pointing all the blame on the "big, bad, greedy oil companies".

It's true, Exxon does make a lot of money - billions of dollars. But they are also one of the world's largest corporations, with millions of stockholders - including many 401k plans. 1st Quarter 2008 sales were $116.85 billion, with a profit of $10.89 billion. That's a 9.3% profit margin. Microsoft by contrast, had sales in the 1st Quarter of $13.76 billion, with $4.29 billion in profit. That is a 31.2% profit margin!

Why isn't Congress bringing the executives of Microsoft in front of the TV cameras, to chastise them for their "outrageous and unconscionable" profits??? Oil company profit isn't the problem - Congress is!!!

We need both a short term and a long term energy policy. The long term has to pursue alternative energy sources - wind, hydrogen, nuclear, etc. - we can't be dependent on fossil fuels forever. But in the short term, we need relief from the current dilemma we're in. We have many oil fields in this country, and in our coastal waters. The problem is that regulations pushed by extreme environmental groups and enacted by Congress, are severely limiting access to this resource and to the ability of oil companies to be able to build and get permits for new refineries. We're not talking about allowing belching black smokestacks, but a reasonable approach to allow some increased refining capacity.

Pricing is based on supply and demand. If we increase our supply of oil and refined oil products from our own country, pricing will go down. We need to let Congress know that they are the problem, and they need to act NOW!

If you agree, the National Association of Manufacturers has an easy way for you to get on a petition that will be sent to Congress. There are over 300,000 signatures already. Please sign yourself, and pass on to everyone you can. Let's show our lawmakers that we want action!!!

Thanks for your help!

Jim Everett