Gas Prices: The (Not So) Final Nail in the Coffin?

You'd think we'd have learned something from the summer of 2008.  I guess not.  Here we go again.  Oil flirting with $100 per barrel.  The Saudis telling the world to basically just get over it.  Oh really?  Much is made over the role of the sub-prime mortgage market's role in destroying billions in world wide wealth in '08.  But what about the gas prices?  $4 per gallon juice didn't hurt us?  Get real.  This situation is about to get VERY real.  Ask anyone with a cash register how gas prices will affect their business.  Most will have a fairly universal answer: it's gonna hurt.  Those of us living here in Texoma don't have much of a choice.  We have to fuel up the cars and trucks.  Considering the number of folks who live outside Wichita Falls who have to work here, they have NO other choice.  It's not like they can catch the rail into town, now can they?  Rural areas are going to get spanked hard by spiking gas prices.  And yes, $3 per gallon for any sustained period will hurt.  $4 will be destructive.  If we ever hit $5, it's game over.  The bleeding will be catastrophic.  And our leaders know it.  Will this be the final nail in America's economic coffin?  No.  But it's among the last handful, for certain.  The industry, as a whole, better do something.  We've been held hostage by OPEC for decades.  This has got to stop.  Windmills are NOT the answer.  Oil is king, and that ain't gonna change anytime soon.  It's time to get set the politicians, EPA, enviro-nazi's and everyone else who's standing in the way of domestic production straight, once and for all.   Otherwise, we're setting ourselves up for the ultimate 'nationalization' of our oil and gas industry.  Or is THAT the goal?

Think about it.  Now, I'm off to gas up my truck, cause I'm not ready to ride a horse to town...yet.