Well now wait a minute.
Gasoline is one thing, natural gas another and electricity another. All 3 rose at the same time. I cannot believe this was orchestrated. Hell, even here in MO I was paying nearly $1.95 or so for regular unleaded, premium was over $2. Of course, our formulation is almost unique to our area, so they simply did not make it and we really did have a temporary shortage, albeit a manufactured shortage to raise prices. I think the shortages were derived by not making enough formulations by geographic area. There is plenty of gasoline. They control the manufacture by geographic location and formulation. It is easy to short one area and cause a price increase. But the Whitehouse caused this?! BS!
Natural gas? I have no idea. I live in a relatively mild climate, winters only get to 0 degrees F or so. My gas bill did rise, but not so as to cause me discomfort so I did not worry about it.
Electricity? CA had lots of plants off-line for various reasons. They also had a cold winter. The plants in Southern CA cannot push enough power north. The rolling blackouts were in Northern CA. So, supply and demand says I can charge more and the suppliers did. I see no Whitehouse tie-in, no smoking gun, no punishment for the Left Coast not voting for Bush. I see a bunch of people refusing to believe their little paradise is subject to infrastructure problems, people who are pissed that their views of the the way the US should be run are not being implemented, people who just want to lash out at someone over a bad situation. Who better than the President! Start at the top.
The Jeffords spin being put forth here is garbage. If people have not learned anything about Bush yet, one thing they should learn is he is not afraid of anything. There are other things in CA that need looked into that occurred under their previous Governor. Allowing the Dukes and Enrons to buy all the generation is a big problem. I would look there for conspiracy......
I am not in love with Bush. I am still trying to decide where he is taking us. But I honestly cannot hate him after only 7 months in office either. I am giving the guy a chance.
-Jeff |
