Mixed Feelings


This Christian Science Monitor article focusing on the expected 2007 spike in energy prices is definitely NOT good news for the country as a whole; however, it could be a sorely needed boost to the Gret Stet. Increasing prices presumably fuel, no pun intended, increased exploration and/or production, both on and off shore. This in turn should increase state revenues (and, under the current circumstances, will likely send oil company profits even further through the roof and literally into orbit). Of course, consumers--including Gret Stet'ers--will pay...probably through the nose.

For the record, I'd much prefer a sane, sound energy policy that isn't wedded to oil company whims. And the increased revenues flowing into state coffers will, again no pun intended, likely be a drop in the bucket versus the genuine need down here.

Oil, for the Gret Stet, has been a deal with the devil from the beginning. The revenues accrued have never been distributed with any measure of equity, while the costs of extraction, in terms of public health and environmental consequences, have been extreme. But, the state has made the deal, and those of us here live with it.

But next summer, when the reports of $4 or $5 a gallon gasoline are aired, with irate consumers complaining about it costing upwards of $150 to fill up, I'll admit that part of me will think that they've got a somewhat peculiar idea of what 'suffering' means...at least compared to some struggling to return to even the semblence of a normal life along the Gulf Coast...