Clinton Talks the Price of Gas

CLINTON TALKS THE PRICE OF GAS

By Alisha M. Kendall
The Weekly Recorder
March 18, 2008

On Friday afternoon, roughly 25 members of the press piled into a small gas station in Pittsburgh, while about 200 other people waited outside, hoping for just a glimpse of Hillary Clinton. Scheduled to arrive at 2:30, the Senator was about a half of an hour late, which caused a ruckus outside. People started yelling outside, some for Hillary, cheering her name, and others against, telling her to “Go Home.” After much awaited anticipation, Hillary arrived at the small gas station, and the crowd outside went wild, while the press kicked it into gear, turning on video cameras, recorders, and microphones, to make sure not a word of what she had to say would be missed.

The point of the conference was to discuss the prices of gas and other types of fuel/energy that are currently being used in the United States. The cost of energy has increased since President Bush has taken office. The average person now spends more than $2,000 more on energy a year than they did before Bush was in office. The best President Bush can offer seems to be “too little too late.” Hillary mentioned how Vice President Cheney has been warning his ‘big oil friends’ in other countries to be careful, that America might become energy independent in order to have control over our own destiny and get the cost down for energy in our own country.

She discussed the energy bill of 2005 and how it contained billions of dollars of giveaways for big oil companies, and the prices have continued to rise still. She has advocated for several years that the federal government and agencies are given more power to investigate why the prices go up when they do. The prices seem to go up without any relation to anything else, and the public has no indication of why this happens. She also believes that the federal government should have more power to set the prices for oil, and keep them regulated.

She also believes that the Strategic Petroleum Reserves are full enough for now, that it is a waste of money to pay extreme prices to fill this. It is already 97 percent of the way filled. She would consider as president to release some of the petroleum from these reserves to drive down the prices of fuel in the market. It is a necessity for the government to do something at this point to drive the prices down.

She believes that our country must invest in other, alternative ways to fuel our society. She has plans that will make each state energy independent, and she believes we need to delve more deeply into alternative types of car fuels. She is sincerely interested in the progression of hybrid vehicles, and mentioned the hybrid bus, which only a few school districts are using so far. She mentions that this is much cleaner that diesel fuel. She wants to create a bigger market for hybrid vehicles by increasing tax breaks for purchasers, which will increase the market, and drop the prices.

Hillary believes that the United States needs to become independent of other countries, and avoid purchasing fuel from others. We need to self-sustain a market that is created and based entirely in the U.S. Then, after we get a new market, and lower prices, and we are self-sustaining, then and only then can we start to purchase from other countries again.