Government to probe oil prices

I was just reading the news and had to add this article...

"Amid soaring oil prices that some say are caused by nothing more than rampant speculation, the government Thursday announced a wide ranging probe into oil price manipulation and said it would get more information on the effect investors are having on the market" (Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com, 2008).

You have got to be kidding me!! The government NOW wants to look into price gouging and overcharging??!! Why didn't they do this three years ago? All of a sudden the Bush Administration wants check into this when he's on his way out? Not that he can do much about it now. Hey Georgie boy, the horse is already out of the barn, too late moron.

Here in Arizona the average price for regular unleaded is $3.81 a gallon. In my city it's $3.89 a gallon. This is nuts! I almost can't afford to drive to work only 12 miles away. When is this going to stop. They say it's because the summer blend gas is more expensive than winter blend. That's got to be just a smokescreen. I know it's not the gas stations jack up the price because they're paying nearly the same price. The profit margin is so small I can't believe anyone would want to own a station. I guess quantity makes it up but damn. I'm thinking of riding my bike to work, and that's saying something coming from a fat guy that has the exercise abilities of Homer Simpson. This sucks!! I'm spending, between my wife and I, about $300 a month in gas and we work 12 miles away, right next door to each other (literally). What sucks worse is that we go to work at different times so we can't even carpool.

Is it that hard to get oil out of the ground. I mean aren't the oil companies doing the same thing as ten or twenty years ago? Does it cost that much to ship it? What happened to all the car companies and their bright idea of hybrids and fuel cell cars. I work for a GM dealer and our hybrids are great but the price outweighs the savings in fuel. So where's the incentive to "GO GREEN!" and help our world?? I worry about the environment and try to do things to help. But half the time it's such a big pain in the butt or costs twice as much I fall off the wagon.

Americans have got to just stand up and say enough is enough, but the problem is how the hell do you do it. We can't stop buying gas. Plus many people use their vehicles for work or, in my case, to get to work. Carpooling is a fabulous idea but many people live 30+ miles from their jobs in this area, so that is hard to do. The public transit system stops its lines east right on the same road my workplace is located. It does not come any further east. So that's out of the question. The last resort is my bike (reference Homer Simpson here). I'll let you know how it turns out.