There has been severe flooding along the East coast especially is South Carolina and Georgia. Storm surge and high tides take much of the blame but one thing that should be entering into the conversation is the rising seas. Since the start of the Industrial Age till now the oceans have raised 8 inches and that rate appears be accelerating. They are predicted to rise another 2 feet or more by the end of the century. We need to start being a little more concerned about what we are doing to the planet that we are slowly destroying. Since 2000 28 tropical and subtropical have hit Louisiana alone with 7 since 2020. To me they appear to be increasing in number. Rising seas and more tropical and subtropical storms is not a good idea and all of our coastal areas along the East coast and gulf are going to suffer.

We need to wean ourselves off of fossil fuel and climate change is one of the biggest reason but not the only reason. The fossil fuel companies have too much power over our economy. Every part of our daily lives, I feel, is being affected by the fossil fuel companies from the food we eat to the homes we live in. How does the food get to the grocery store or restaurant? By truck of course. As it gets more expensive to deliver that food what does it do to the prices? It has to make the prices go up. Not only food but everything that we have is almost all delivered by some type of vehicle that is burning fossil fuel whether it is across the ocean or being delivered to your door. That gives the fossil fuel companies way too much power over our everyday lives. As your Christmas gets more expensive you can look directly at the fossil fuel industry and being part of your problem.

Right now we are paying the highest prices for fuel that we have for years. Why? I hear a lot about how demand has gone up and that is what is driving our prices. I am no oil expert but I don’t buy that one. Gas prices have gone up almost a buck a gallon since January. First we had the cyber attack on the Colonial Oil pipe line in the Southeast. That sent prices surging. When the crisis was over did you see prices fall back to what they were? I didn’t. Now you get into the hurricane season first with Tropical Storm Claudette and then Hurricane Ida. Each one raising the price of gas that much more. I feel that the oil companies just look for reasons to make the American consumer pay at the pump. There is no true competition between the oil companies so what we have in my opinion is good old fashion price fixing. I swear that if a Saudi Prince sneezes they raise the price of gas. I also think that there is a political side to it where they try to punish the consumer and the Administration when they are denied things like Pipe lines.

The fossil fuel companies are what are wrong with capitalism. A refinery in Indiana goes down and everyone raises their process. Why? Because they all get their gas from the same refinery? That is what it looks like to me. Where is the competition in that? Without competition capitalism does not work for the consumer and what we have now is not working for the consumer. We do not have competition. We have cartels that fix prices and manipulate the prices. That is not how capitalism is supposed to work. We are being sold a bill of goods that in reality is hurting our economy and our pocketbooks. Who is selling us that bill of goods? The fossil fuel companies that is a given. Many of our own Government Representative is also while also lining their own pockets with the bribes that the fossil fuel companies are giving them. Of course we know them as donations but what they really are is a bribe. We won’t even get into the tax breaks that they get or the subsidies they get.

Now the price of gas has been going up and of course Fox News and many Republicans are blaming the President. Yup, Biden he sent those storms and he hacked the pipeline. Sorry the reason the price of gas has gone up is because of the system that has been created to benefit the gas companies and not the American consumer. Does the President have control over any of this? I wish he did but he really doesn’t. You want to know why we are paying as much as we are you can just look at a broken system that lets the fossil fuel companies hold our nation hostage. The people that do have the power to change this are probably congress. The same people that are lining their pockets with Fossil Fuel Companies money.