Bad Times for Driving Anywhere

O.K. I admit it - I have retired and don't have to drive anywhere - except June 6 - 15, when I will visit friends in Austin TX, Corpus Christi, and then I plan to go onto the Big Bend where I have never been. How I would love to see the Marfa lights.

In France, fishermen are blockading oil refineries. In Britain, lorry drivers are planning a day of action. In the US, the car maker Ford is to cut production of gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles and airlines are jacking up ticket prices. Global concerns about fuel prices are reaching fever pitch and the world's leading energy monitor has issued a disturbing downward revision of the oil industry's ability to keep pace with soaring demand.

Yesterday's warning from the International Energy Agency sent the price of a barrel of oil to a new record for the 13th day in a row. The latest high – $135 for a barrel of light sweet crude – was reached in New York barely five months after the price hit $100. Experts in London and on Wall Street predict that prices will rise to $200, regardless of the protests of consumers and the complaints of politicians. It is simple economics, they say: supply and demand. The former is short, the latter growing.

Consumers are feeling the pinch in almost every area of their daily lives.

If you aren't raising your own veggies, yet, may I suggest this is a good time to start.

The oil companies that bought up refineries and promptly shut them down are now claiming thatthey don't have enough refineries. Anyone remember Enron?