What IS up with these outrageous gas prices? Last year at this time the "average" price of a gallon of regular gas in California was $2.74. This week it is $3.28. Here in Taft, CA the lowest I can find is $3.35!!! They have shot up in the last several weeks and we have not so much as heard a blip from the news as to WHY (until this morning for the first time on MSNBC news it was "mentioned", a statement was made, but no explanations attached). The DOE is predicting wild swings up to the year 2030 (!!!), which they say is more of a problem than the actual average price per gallon of the oil. One problem is the US has almost no energy policy. Z-Facts.com states "Solar, wind and biomass (ethanol) research are funded at the rate of $1.13 per person per year, and that's all together. That's not a policy, it's a bad joke."

Bush is pushing ethanol as a renewable energy source, what I am reading is it is very expensive to produce, ergo will be very expensive to consumers! "Corn Ethanol—Cute but Expensive - Ethanol shortages have helped push up gas prices and generate huge profits for producers (not farmers). Doesn't sound like a viable solution for the masses (and definitely not for the farmers), we'll be no better off than we currently are with the oil barons who are swimming in massive profits while some Americans are actually being forced to choose between food & keeping warm or gas to drive to work! A major catch-22. No job, no food or heat! And lets not ignore what replacing millions (billions?) of acres of "crops for food" with "crops for fuel" threatens in itself. Oh what a corner we have painted ourselves into.