Energy Crunch

Once again oil has settled in at over $145 a barrel. I would expect to see gas prices in the St. Louis metro area pop over the $4 per gallon mark this week around Wednesday. Why Wednesday? I don’t know, it just seems as though most of the recent price jumps occur on Wednesday afternoons.

Anyway, what are we going to do about it? I mean, what is there really to do? There are lots of people calling for opening ANWR and the off-costal waters to drilling. The President responded yesterday to those calls by rescinding an executive order that kept them from drilling in those areas for the last 20 years or so. But it is going to be 2-5 years for the geological surveys to be completed and drilling to start and another 10-15 years before the wells are able to be delivering oil at capacity.

This is just me talking and I don’t represent anybody. And I’m also tired from having to work two jobs just to keep ahead. My wife works too. We’re doing ok, but the fuel costs are driving us crazy. It cost me almost $70 to fill up my wife’s minivan. That’s one reason I gotten a small car for my primary vehicle. But not everybody has the luxury of going out and buying a more fuel efficient vehicle. Well, I was wanting to buy one anyway before the other car up and died on me, but that’s another story.

Fuel & grocery costs are consuming a much larger portion of everybody's income. One way we can help is getting real mass transit going in the city of St. Charles and in St. Charles county. It is beyond stupid that we don't have a decent, cost-efficient public transportation grid. Some of the people in power have playing politics & power games with our economic stability. There are quite a few spots just within the city of St. Charles that employ over a 1000 people from the local area. With a good public transportation system, we could move these folks between home and work AND home and shopping. More money in their pocketbook means that they would have more disposable income. And if we make it more economical to stay local, shop local, and buy local those tax dollars come back into the city's coffers. And that doesn't even cover what it can do to help make it easier to keep those tourist dollars here.

Switching gears a little, there was a good interview on Channel 2 last night talking about urban sprawl. This is Tim Busse of New Town at St. Charles

And on a personal note, at the lodge I belong to, we're going to be putting on a couple of third degrees. We're actually rehearsing tonight. I'm pretty nervous because I have volunteered to do a part I haven't done before. Straying out of the comfort zone, as it were. That's one good thing about being with a group of friends is that even if I mess up we'll laugh about it and they'll help me get it right the next time.

Looks to be another great day in metro area. Take it easy out there, remember we're all pulling for you. (quote from "The New Red Green Show")