The petition is useless, vague, and is only being used as a political tool. The low gas prices we have enjoyed in the US for so long has only served to inhibit the development of alternative fuel sources and technologies to get more out of less fuel. Not to mention the environmental impact.
No doubt that the petition is a political tool.
However, I don't agree with your logic.
I was watching Bill Mar's show on HBO, and the actor that played Magnito in the X-men movies and Gandolf in Lord of the Rings (forgot his name) was arrogently scoffing at the gas price issue, saying basically, "well, Americans just need to drive less, get jobs closer to home, ride bikes more, etc..." I like him as an actor, but this made him sound like a pretentious POS. Such ideas are disconnected from what working families are facing today.
The fact is that we are unable to go back in time and reconstruct our socio-economic structure. All we can do is change and progress from where we are at now. In a Michigan job market with unemployment rates ranging from 11-13% depending on what data your looking at, people are having to take jobs with heavy commutes. We have built a society that is reliant on travel.
It can be argued that our travel relient society was built by all of us, but the facts are that big oil and big auto have been proponents of this structure, and have profited huge from it.
So, should it be solely the responsability of the consumer/worker to make all the changes and sacrifices while large companies continue to profit with no sacrifice? I think not.
This needs to be a collective effort between consumer/worker/employer/seller. Consumers need to be more concious about gas use. Employers need to allow for workers to work at home more when possible. Car companies need to invest in research for alternative fuel based vehicles. And, oil companies should give up the benefits of raking huge profits on our backs.
Yet, none of this will happened without some kind of regulation put in place by government. The reason is because it is more profitable and comfortable for a few to keep people enslaved with horrendous work schedules and commutes, to reap profits of high oil prices, and to make cars the old fashion way rather then research that may not help the bottom line in a years time.
All of this starts with regulating the profits of the oil market, and treating it as we do other commodities that are necessary to the security of the U.S. and world economy. From there we can talk about incentive programs for car companies to research alternative fuel vehicles, and worker programs to encourage less travel.
And unfortunatily, it isn't up to the consumer to make all this happened. This is up to our elected officials (not just the Bush administration, but Congress as well).
So, it may be a political ploy, but I still think it is important to continue to hammer this issue so that our leaders won't lose site of its importance...
