The Daily Gripe #14 - $3.099

It's time for The Daily Gripe, from Average Joe American.

Today I paid the highest price I have ever paid for a gallon of gasoline: $3.099. I know the price has been that high or higher in many parts of the country already, but I have luckily managed so far to always find it somewhere below the $3.00 mark. Not anymore.

I wrote last week about the record profits reported by ExxonMobil for the second quarter of the current fiscal year. I wrote recently about the huge compensation packages paid to executives in the oil industry. And I've written several times about the high cost of gasoline and other petroleum products.

Earlier this year, the federal government considered imposing a windfall profits tax on the oil industry. The plan was to take at least a portion of the proceeds from this tax and return it to American consumers in the form of a tax rebate. Of course, big oil lobbyists convinced the powers that be that such a move would be ill advised.

I say it's time that some serious action be taken to put a stop to the gouging of American motorists that happens every day at the gas pumps. Call your Senators and Congressperson. Buy gas from only a locally owned gas station, and ask them who they buy their gasoline from. And don't support ExxonMobil. Haven't they taken enough of our money already?

Today, that tank of gas at $3.099 cost me $51.00. And now that I'm driving a Jimmy to work instead of my Focus, I don't get such great gas mileage. That really gripes me, and it's time we as Americans do something about it!

Call your Senator today!

Joe