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I know some people say that it takes times for oil prices to work their way through the market before gas prices at the pump adjusts. I want them to consider this: If there is an earthquake, a chance of increased hostility overseas, a penguin sneezes somewhere cold, and we see instant increases in the price we pay for our fuel. This is due to “speculation” or “market forces” or some other culprit. The point is should oil prices increase our costs increase almost immediately.

However, it appears the reverse is not true. Due to some decent production levels, and new regulations put into place to reduce the power speculators have to drive up the price of crude oil, we have seen some impressive drops in the price of a barrel of oil recently.

One might think that with such a break, the price of gas would do a corresponding drop as well….but no. It IS true that prices have dropped…a few cents. A tiny token, designed to appease the masses, but a token that tells us shortly the price we pay will be skyrocketing once again.

I suppose we should be grateful for even this short delay in yet another price increase, but for me, I fear what happens when the greed of the corporations demand we pay a cost for our fuel we simply cannot pay.

And that day is rapidly approaching.

Perhaps it is time to embrace a new form of transport, whether an electric vehicle, or if it becomes successful, a hydrogen fuel cell car. Some form of change is in our near future, the only question that remains is what can we do to weather the transition?

A good thought to consider for a monday morning

As the price of oil continues to rise, some are turning to God and prayer for an answer to their financial troubles.

The Pray at the Pump Movement, founded by Rocky Twyman, has been holding prayer vigils at gas stations across the country. On Monday, Twyman decided to take his movement from Exxon and Shell stations straight to the steps of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C., hoping to encourage the oil-rich country to raise the amount of barrels they release each day from 200,000 to 1.2 million.

Twyman, who is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, spent the afternoon outside of the embassy praying and asking passersby to sign his petition for the release of more oil, which he hopes to deliver to the Saudi oil minister.

“Our people are really suffering through this crisis,” Twyman told Cybercast News Service. “We need the Saudis to release at least 1.2 [million] barrels of oil per day for about the next six months until we can get everything settled in America … (I)f they can just do that for us, than this will help us get through this crisis.”

Twyman, who prompted the first national campaign aimed at getting African Americans to become bone marrow donors, has moved on to more active participation to lower gas prices than eliciting the help of God through prayer.

“I think we have just entered a new phase. We were in the prayerful phase, but now we’re going into a more activist phase, because we feel that whole faith without works is dead,” Twyman told reporters.

Prayer aside, some argue that there is very little the average consumer can do to influence gas prices. John Neurohr from the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, has a different approach to managing the high gas prices.

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Italy’s lorry drivers say they are suspending their three-day blockade that has led to shortages of petrol and food across the country.

The two main unions representing the strikers say the government has agreed to address their concerns about rising fuel prices and long working hours.

Thousands of drivers have been blockading motorways since Monday.

 [More...]

 This news is interesting on 2 levels. The first is the realization that within 3 days, food shelves can be emptied, gasoline reserves can be deleted, and chaos can break out in a 1st world nation just with a truck strike.

 The 2nd interesting thing to consider it the amazing power we consumers have to change our situation. Maybe it’s time government and big oil realized the growing dissatisfaction many people have with their expensive over-priced over-taxed cash cows, and start to work for the people that put them into power in the first place.