Gas crunch: If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and always has yellow feathers ...

There is a reason that Americans do not trust oil companies.

It is understandable that announcements that deal with oil, and the volatility in the areas where we retrieve it, might send the price up.

It is even more understandable that companies have to make a profit to stay in business.

But the latest round of skyrocketing prices -- and the wide variation in the cost of fueling your vehicle -- seem just a bit disingenuous.

In other words, there are more than a few people who think that someone has decided to use the events in the Middle East as an excuse to jack up prices -- and is taking the profit to the bank.

Local dealers, for the most part, won't talk about supply, demand and pricing. But those who do say that they are the end of the stick -- that it is the suppliers who determine what they must charge to make a profit.

And that could be true.

But it really is time to get some kind of control over the escalating gas prices -- either through more investigation of the matter and conservation efforts by individual car owners or by exploring other ways to get oil.

Either way, it would give this country some flexibility as it tries to compete with other countries for the available oil supply -- and put some pressure on those who are jacking up the prices.

Now is the perfect time for a drive less, ride a bike campaign -- if Americans can really do it.

Published in Editorials on March 4, 2011 10:49 AM