Recently angry truckers converged on Washington to stage a noisy protest and demand that Congress provide relief from diesel prices that have soared above $4 a gallon nationwide. The high prices are sucking money out of our wallets and the economy like a huge vacuum cleaner and I’m afraid that it will seriously affect our ability to afford and enjoy the use of our Dodge diesel trucks--or any vehicles. It’s not only driving up the cost of living, but also makes the cost of towing RVs or boats and other recreational pursuits prohibitive.

The presidential candidates have made proposals that include a temporary suspension of federal fuel taxes and halting the filling of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. These changes won’t significantly address the problem long range.

Suspending the federal fuel tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day was suggested by presidential candidate John McCain and embraced by Hillary Clinton. Drivers would get a paltry 5% break on fuel costs, and it would likely increase demand slightly and the oil market would probably raise our prices to eliminate the reduction. It would also take away about $10 billion in taxes that pay for roads and infrastructure that have to come from someplace. Senator Clinton wants to make it up with a "windfall profits tax" on oil companies, but they claim it would discourage long-term investment.

The Strategic Reserve is supposed to be there if a major disruption of oil supplies occurs, which is quite possible considering the Middle East's volatility. The government adds about 70,000 barrels of oil every day to fill the reserve, which is said to amount to only 0.08% of the oil the world consumes daily, so the market would hardly notice. Some people say we should tap the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve for oil, but I don’t think we should, not only for environmental reasons, but we need to retain domestic reserves in case of war or other national emergencies.

No question that truckers--and all of us--are hurting, but these stopgap solutions fail to address the real reasons for high prices nor do they offer a long-term fix. We have known this problem was coming for a long time. Ever since the first oil embargo in 1973 our “public servants” have been grandstanding about various “solutions” but have produced little in the way of results, often dragging their heels to prevent legislation that might affect their favorite special interests. Now we’re in a hell of a mess.

In the meantime, countries like Brazil (that some folks have looked down upon as being technologically backward) have developed domestic fuel policies that have made them energy self-sufficient. Soaring fuel prices are causing inflationary spirals that are resulting in huge price increases for all products, including food and other necessities. Meanwhile the huge multi-national oil companies are making massive profits and have shown little social conscience.

Yes, I agree we need to conserve energy, develop alternative energy sources and buy more fuel-efficient vehicles, etc., but perhaps we also need to rethink the current model we are using for oil supply. I know this will boggle some minds and some will call me a dirty commie, but what if we declared that the oil that is under our ground is now the property of the people of the United States, and only for the benefit and use of its citizens? Oil could only be sold for what it costs to bring it up and refine it, with a moderate amount built in to pay for exploration and profit, but not marked up to the price the OPEC oil sheiks want to maintain so they can build showcase cities in the desert, golden palaces and buy extravagant private jets. Why do we need to ship money out of our country to multi-national oil companies and speculators even for oil we get here?

Each citizen who is a licensed driver would receive an account accessed by something like a debit card, and you could use that to access your allotment. For example, using round numbers for simplicity, if we have 200 million drivers, and we produce 400 million gallons of fuel per day domestically, each driver gets a daily allotment of two gallons at the U.S. price. Use any amount above the allotment and you pay the “world” price just like before. The higher “world” price for additional fuel would retain the incentive to conserve, while the domestic price would help contain inflation and allow people some reasonably priced fuel to get to work and back home.

We need to take back our country from the special interests and big campaign contributors or we’re not going to have a middle class soon. What do you think should be done?