Life's a Gas

Not to brag (well, maybe just a little), but a couple of weeks ago I predicted gas would hit $5.00 a gallon. Granted, it didn't happen with hurricane Gustav, but Ike has delivered. Overnight the price of regular unleaded has gone as high as $5.50 in some parts of the nation.

Despite some of the earlier dire forecasts, Ike was "only" a category 2 hurricane when it finally hit the Galveston/Houston area early yesterday. But it was also a massive storm, nearly the size of Texas. Ike was so big, even Paris Hilton was impressed, and she's certainly seen more than her share of big ones.

The problem for the oil industry is that thanks to Ike, 20% of the nation's refining capacity is now offline. And even though the storm's wind and flood damage may have been less severe than anticipated, the electric grid is so shredded at the moment that it may be weeks before some refineries can be restarted.

Perhaps what's most predictable about the current situation is that as the price of gasoline goes through the stratosphere, politicians will be tripping all over one another condemning the oil industry and calling for investigations. The resulting hot air is expected to worsen global warming, hasten the melting of arctic ice, and further stress already endangered polar bears.

Oh, and Ike also killed a bunch of people. But priorities are priorities, and the rest of us can't be expected to worry about little things like that at the moment.

Sure, the rest of the world is still pretty damn jealous of our still relatively low gas prices. But we're Americans, by gosh, and we're entitled to cheap gasoline. God said so. It's in the damn Bible.... Right by the part that condemns same-sex marriages.