For the holiday
weekend, I grappled with the decision of whether to go to Grand
Junction, CO, known as the 'heart of Colorado wine country,' or to
let the gloom and doom of the rising gas prices win, which would mean
staying home and watching TV. Since wine tasting is, fortunately, a
free activity, I decided to let the opportunity to get my drink on
for free justify spending the ninety bucks to fill up my tank both
ways to get there.



There are times,
though, when the math just doesn't add up this conveniently. Like
how, despite the waning economy and Americans paying an arm and a leg
at the pumps, the big oil companies continue
to profit at record
highs. Or how a conservative 'band-aid' solution to America's gas
woes is to
suspend the gas tax for the summer- saving Americans a
whopping $30.




To me, that
translates to approximately two bottles of wine. Let me tell you, I
would be much more willing to hand those bottles over for a plan that
proposed a sustainable solution to the many impending problems our
country can no longer afford to overlook: our suffering economy, the
rising costs of food and gas, our addiction to oil and our
environmentally irresponsible practices. Lifting the gas tax for a
summer will only encourage
Americans to consume more oil and lead us
down a path that we can no longer afford to forge – while allowing
the big oil companies to rake in more dough.




I guess our
conservative leadership would rather let me keep my two bottles of
wine to dull the sting of today's harsh reality: cheap gas is
never coming back. But during Progressive Future's campaign to take
on big oil this summer, we will be going out in communities and
talking to real people with real problems, and using these stories to
promote comprehensive solutions. Solutions like investing
in public
transit systems, developing
alternative energy resources and
providing tax
breaks for energy efficient practices.




I know that I
would rather sacrifice my two bottles for a better future. For those
of you who feel the same, you can donate
to Progressive Future's Big
Oil campaign, or you can take one of our many
actions calling for
responsible
energy solutions.