I just paid a bill for the most recent fill up of my heating oil tank – 160.9 gallons at $3.429 per gallon, for a total of $551.73. On the way to and from the dealers, I noted that regular unleaded gasoline is $3.369 per gallon. I consider these prices obscene, and lay the blame squarely upon the oil industry and our government.

How did we get ourselves into such a mess, and what is being done to get us out? The first question is easy enough to answer: The reason we are where we are is that the oil industry and our elected officials have simply let it happen.

There has not been a refinery built in this country in the last 30 years, and little, if any, exploration for oil has taken place, mainly because the environmentalists don’t like it. So the industry has sat on their hands, and taken their profits, for quite some time now. As a result, the demand for petroleum has outstripped the supply, and this country has become extremely dependent upon foreign oil, much of which comes from countries who, to put it mildly, don’t like us. Supply and demand determine the price, and since they have it and we need it, they are going to stick it to us.

As to what is being done to get us out of this situation, again the answer is, in two words, not much. I think it’s time we economized on the use of oil, went looking for more, and sought alternative means of obtaining energy.

For openers, how about reducing the use of so much plastic, most of which is made from petroleum? Installing an LNG terminal in the southeast corner of this state surely would ease petroleum prices. So far the only progress for such a terminal is a lot of loose talk.

The same holds true for the installation of wind generators, except in the Mars Hill area; lots of talk, not much action. Then there is the oil field in Alaska, waiting to be opened up. Hasn’t happened, because the environmental people have blocked it. The same holds true in the Gulf of Mexico; the oil is there, but nobody’s trying to get it. And while we’re at it, how about other forms of energy, such as coal or wood pellets or hydrogen? Anything going on there? Again, not much, except a lot of loose talk. Well, people, talk’s cheap, and it takes money to buy oil.

As long as they have the oil, and we continue to need it, they will hold us up for it, and probably use the money from it to finance terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida and sink us with our own money – if we let them do it. Don’t you think it’s time to break this stranglehold the oil producers have on us, and restore the price of energy to something reasonable? I do.

I think Washington should make every effort to open up more oil sources of our own and encourage other forms of energy development with an eventual goal of achieving energy independence. Then at some future time, I can fire up my hydrogen-powered car and go pay for the wood pellets for my heater. They won’t cost me the equivalent of $3.43 a gallon, either.

Ferdinand Armbrust lives in Caribou.