Monday, about sundown... was sitting on a porch with a friend who is running for City Council. She is infuriated by a letter in the local paper, which is blaming environmentalists for a shortage of refineries. (and I thought it was local property owners? )

Guy across the street backs into his drive; pushing a boat trailer with his jet ski on board. He has a little trouble getting his Godzilla-sized truck aligned, their multi-car garage is packed with gear.

But no, he's not putting it in right away. First, he starts up the jet ski engine, and revs that up varoom-varoom-varoom-varoom-varoom-varoom-varoom-varoom like a Harley for about 5 minutes. He creates an unbelievable cloud of stinky two-cycle exhaust. Then he zips into the house (my guess to recycle the beers he's had).

Two teenagers zipping along on a scooter approach; the scooter slows and then circle in the street, as the kids stare at the house. They apparently decide it is not on fire, and continue on their way.

Silence returns. Well not really, his has left the truck engine running. My friend says he makes this cloud of pollution every weekend.

The guy and his wife come out after about 15 minutes. He detaches the trailer and they drive off in the truck, altho they have a regular passenger car...

$2.99/gal hasn't changed things much around here.

A republican congressman on C-span said today that this disaster showed why we need to drill in Alaska and build more refineries.

Watch for republicans to bring up these issues again in congress.

The oil industry said they did not build refineries because it was not economically feasible. The government does not build refineries.

The best congress can do is give more tax breaks to the oil companies. The recent energy bill gave them billions. Tom Delay wants a second energy bill to pass these other items.

There's an old saying,

"If you can't beat 'em, you might as well join 'em"

Instead of having a sort of corporate giveaway, the government can invest the money it'd normally set aside for incentives into investing in refinery stocks like Valero, Sunoco, Marathon, and Conoco-Philips. (I hold some of these stocks in an energy mutual fund, but probably don't have more than $300 worth.)

By putting investment capital into the refining industry, the government would be able to not only increase refining capacity in an effective manner, it'd also be able to get its money back.


However, I think that high gas prices are ultimately going to start getting consumers into a conservation and alternative energy mindset. $3.00/gallon gas is going to do more for the environmental movement than 30 years of politics couldn't do.