Addicted to Oil

I might say that the only thing I ever agreed with George Bush on was his statement of "America is addicted to oil." I don't think he was sincere in his concern by a longshot, but the need for oil is a huge problem. Cars are getting bigger, and gas prices are getting higher, yet virtually no solutions have been put in place. Hybrid cars may get good mileage, but they are in limited supply, and cost more than a regular car. People can convert their cars to run on corn oil, but there is a lot of preparation involved in getting the oil and removing impurities that can clog up your car. Despite gas jumping up to $3 per gallon, there is no less amount of Hummers and SUVs. We're more or less backed against a wall, and are forced to pay whatever oil companies want us to pay. Oil companies post billions more in profits over the past year, because the cost of oil is so high. If the supply of oil was running lower, you'd figure it'd be more expensive to acquire/ distribute/ manufacture. I guess not, it probably costs the same, they just figured it would be about time to exploit America's need for it.
Oil puts us in a weird position, especially with things in the middle east, where the majority of our oil comes. Do you honestly think that America would care about who's in charge over there if we didn't have some sort of interest? There are oil fields in Iraq and Afghanistan, and if the US had someone in control that they could easily do business with, it makes getting oil over here much easier. Saudi Arabia is considered an ally, yet most of the 9/11 terrorists were from there. If all the terrorists in that plot were from Iraq, you know we would have bombed the shit out of it within a few hours. They say that "war makes strange bed fellows," but now it seems that our greed is making for some strange bedfellows.
What can you do? Nothing, sit back and take it? Pretty much, however since it's you who ultimately chooses where to stop when you go for gas, you can choose who gets your hard earned cash. Keep in mind there's no such thing as a "Mom and Pop" oil company, they're all big evil corporations, but Exxon/Mobil is the biggest oil company in America. Maybe if everyone stopped going there, and distributed their potential profits across the board prices could go down. If you need a reason to boycott Exxon/Mobil, remember the Exxon Valdez? If you don't, click here. A Gigantic oil split ruined the wildlife and economy of a small town in Alaska. Did you know that Exxon hasn't paid any reparations to that town since 1986, and it's been 20 years since the accident and it's still not back to where it was before the accident. Exxon/Mobil could care less about you, why should you feel loyal to them? There's tons of gas stations around, it's your money... Use it with a conscious

FYI: When I got my license in 1997, gas was $.89 in NJ, which has full service gas stations. Today, gas is $3 or more for unleaded. Seems a little bit ridiculous, doesn't it?