I agree its just ignorant people like that get me a little under my skin.....

I do remember we did have electric cars and for some reason they're not available anymore..hmmmmmmmmm

Let's see- you have several million men and women driving big ol' v8 powered SUVs (Hummers, Excursions, Expeditions, Tahoes, Suburbans, et al), all driving at 65 MPH (or faster). Any one who knows anything about automobiles will know that the faster you go, the more fuel you will use up. That goes especially if you drive a fuel-munching SUV getting fifteen miles-to-the-gallon (or worse- the Ford Excursion clocks in at EIGHT MPG in some configurations). Heck- the fuel needed to get a big ol' mommy transport going from a dead stop is pretty sizeable, if only because of the weight of the vehicle.

Given time, reserves are gonna be used as fuel gets wasted. Prices have been rising significantly since Clinton's change in the speed limit back in '96 or '98 (have to check my sources as to when exactly he pass that legislation). We *****ed when prices got up to $3.20. We *****ed when prices got up to $3.40. We *****ed when prices got up to $3.80. And we're *****in' about the $4.00 we're paying for regular gas at present. It wasn't like we were suddenly faced with four-buck-a-gallon gasoline, you know.

Of course the speed limit thing isn't the SOLE cause of our problems- the gas companies haven't built a new refinery in well over thirty years, and they've seemed to be all too eager to raise prices when a refinery breaks down or goes up in smoke. They raise fuel prices when they change over from a "winter" formulation to a "summer" formulation. And they were all too eager to raise fuel prices when they decided to introduce "MTBE" -a fuel additive meant to cut down emissions-, only to raise prices AGAIN when it was found that MTBE not only DID NOT cut down emissions, but ALSO contaminated any nearby water tables AND accelerated the breakdown of fuel lines in some cars, prompting them to get the stuff out of fuel reserves.

And there are a million other things that have brought us to our current fuel debacle. But you simply can't ignore the fact that our ever increasing thirst for fuel in our bloated SUVs, combined with our Clinton-era speed limit changes, that have had at least a small part to play in our four-buck-a-gallon quagmire.

of course iraq does also have two well known and well needed rivers..
wonder if they are POLLUTED??

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Yup the Clintons and their speed limits, Im surprised you didnt say they're friends with the Saudis like the Bush family is but with that said alot people drove fast in 60's, 70's,80's,90's, & the present so WTH are you talking about..Prices are high cuzz of what happening in the middle east, surprised u live in the San Fernando Valley in California and u feel like that..Im starting to think your not even from SoCal

And yet OPEC has recently released a statement that there IS no oil shortage and that they feel no need to increase fuel production (check the Wall Street Journal for details- they just had a major article on all that stuff). And -guess what- they're in the Middle East! So the abnormally-high fuel prices are starting from somewhere, and it's NOT from the middle east. Imagine that.

But I "don't live" in SoCal (as you say), so I probably don't have a clue as to what I'm talking about, huh.