#176 Razzelfrats!

I need to get this out before I go to bed or I'll never get to sleep.  I'll lie there chewing nails.

I'm annoyed at those who say "We've got to reduce our dependence on oil!", and then work to kill mass transit.  Buses are dead except in a few large cities.  Streetcars and trams are dead, except as a tourist attraction.  Trains are dying, and the current administration is working to pull the last plug. 

We have (or had) a local bus one could take into Kingston or Poughkeepsie, but it came into the village only, and there is no place to park in the village.  Same with the trains - I can take Amtrak from Rhinecliff, or Metro North from Poughkeepsie, into New York City or wherever, BUT there's no place safe to leave my car in Rhinecliff or Poughkeepsie (there are lots, but they're already inadequate for the current crop of commuters), and of course there's no bus to the Rhinecliff train station, and no place to leave my car to take the bus from the village to Poughkeepsie.

Why can't we learn from Europe?  You pretty much don't need a car anywhere - even out in the boonies.  There are clean cheap on-time trains and buses within a mile of everywhere!

The newscasters are marveling that gasoline might get to $2.10 this week.  WOW!  It's going down?  It's been $2.45ish around here since last summer!  It's funny - you go up around Albany, where the tax bills are passed, and gas is like $.20 or more cheaper than anywhere else in the state.

Folks are also speculating about whether OPEC's decision to increase production will bring the cost down.  No, it won't.  The price went up because the administration and the oil companies want Alaska oil, and it won't go down until they get it.  Pure and simple.  They keep saying that forking the caribou will "release us from dependence on Arab oil".  Well, they don't mention that less than 15% of our oil comes from OPEC countries.  Most of our oil comes from Mexico and Canada.  And the piddling little bit they'd get from Alaska won't make the tiniest dent.

Blah!

I don't understand.