As the oil price hits $41.50 there is a possibility here that we will be a return to the chaos of 4 years ago, when a group of people decided to mount blocades of oil refineries. As far as I remember this achieved absolutely nothing except to greatly inconveniance everyone.
Does anyone support the idea of similar fuel protests now?
I also got to thinking about the massive consumption of oil in the US. There has clearly been no incentive for Americans to switch to more fuel efficient cars, due to availability of cheap petrol. I believe that the current price in the US is the equivalent of £0.25 per litre, as opposed to £0.82 per litre in the UK.
Although I'm sure this is a non starter with a government so 'hand in glove' with the oil industry', shouldn't Bush increase the tax on fuel (gradually) to encourage people to abandon their 'gas guzzlers' and to maybe walk sometimes instead of driving everywhere.
Two things Americans don't like: small cars and the metric system. I'm an American admitting that both of these things are more sensible, but gas-guzzlers and american measuring standards are part of our culture. Asking Americans to give up big cars is like asking Brits to give up tea or French to give up wine.
I don't really want to start a huge discussion on why gas prices go up, but I don't think it has anything to due with "a shortage". Just two words: price fixing
