$105.84

The closing price of West Texas Crude today.

This despite an economy that has sputtered for the past four years, despite a weather trend that has graced most of the continental US with a warmer than average winter, despite higher than ever MsPG for American driven vehicles, and despite fewer actual driven miles over the past year in this once great land.

The American recovery cannot occur without inexpensive energy. When energy prices first began to pinch consumers in early 2008, democrats blamed the big oil companies while relentlessly trying to kill any and all fossil fuel production that it could. Democrat policies have closed coal fired power plants, have prevented the opening of clean coal power plants, have put offline plans for expansion of American shale oil, have stymied the Keystone pipeline, have left millions of acres of oil rich land untouchable for the oil industry, and have engaged in an illegal moratorium against offshore drilling in the gulf (a moratorium they will relax when enough exploration rigs move to foreign waters and cannot be called back.)

I already know many people who are no longer consuming products and services because they know that their fuel bills are going to eat up too much of their paychecks. Hamburgers remain uneaten, trinkets unpurchased, and movie seats unoccupied.

Billions of dollars are being sucked out of the pockets of consumers because of our disastrous energy and environmental policies. This is exactly what Barack Obama wants and said he wanted. This is exactly what Stephen Chu wants and said he wanted. This is exactly what Lisa P. Jackson wants and said that she wanted.

When gasoline gets to $5.00, $6.00, $7.00 and $8.00 per gallon, how much of your disposable income will evaporate into your gas tank instead of at other local businesses already on the precipice of closing?

Hope and change, baby, hope and change. Enjoy.