In the last week we have seen oil in an all new range of prices from $132-$143 a barrel.  This is not a good sign for all of us who want lower fuel prices.  When a barrel of crude goes up so does gas and diesel fuel.  It has and probably always will mirror each other closely since we get our gas and diesel from a barrel of crude.  For some of you that don't know a barrel is 42 gallons and out of a barrel of crude we get around 20 gallons of gas, 9 gallons of diesel and another 14 gallons of other oil products. And no that is not bad math, we actually get slightly more than 42 gallons of end product from a barrel of crude.  So naturally there is a direct correlation between crude oil and its bi-products, gas and diesel.  The real question is, why the heck it the price so high?
 
There are some that blame it on speculation and others say greed or supply or just a mixed bag.  We believe that there is a very tight supply issue in the world.  Sure we have all started to conserve now that its over $4.00 a gallon for gas and $5.00 a gallon for diesel.  Where were we a couple of years ago or a year ago when it was $2.25 a gallon.  Out of sight, out of mind, right?  As we approach Independence Day at the end of this week, we are still a free country and the best place on Earth to live but are we truly independent? 
 
As we all know for the most part the bad guys own the oil.  I am certainly not putting Saudi Arabia in the bad guy role, they always seem to play it down the middle.  Look, its Iran, Iraq (I guess they're bad, who knows), Libya, Venezuela, North Korea, and Russia.  Not exactly the people you want to be inviting over for dinner.  If most of what this country runs on relies upon oil and most of the oil comes from people that would rather see us sink than swim, I would say as a country we are going to have to do something to make a change.  Use less oil, off shore drilling, bio-fuels, more fuel from Alaska and Canada, wind, solar, water, nuclear, something.  We have sat since 1973 waiting for this to happen. It happened again in the early 80's, early 90's and now 2008 it is happening like we have never seen it before.  Do we want to determine our own destiny or do we want places like Iran or North Korea deciding?  Democrat, Republican it doesn't matter, we are all Americans!  We must look out for what is best for this country. God Bless America!  Enjoy the holiday.