Gas

Here at Albany Catholic, we hope to be faithful to the Church and also to be open to new ideas. In this case, it is about the need for more expensive gasoline. Before you think we have gone completely looney, keep reading.

Gabriel Rotello,an author, journalist and documentary writer/producer/director, writes about the chain e-mails he receives, encouraging him to take action against the oil companies:

Friends, if you think that cheap gas is good - that it's good for you, good for America, good for the planet - you haven't been paying attention.

Several of the greatest threats facing us today result directly from our addiction to cheap oil and gas. First and foremost is global warming. Add to that our economic dependence on unstable, hostile Middle East dictatorships. Stir in our tragic intervention in Iraq. Add the trade deficit. And terrorism. The list goes on and on.

Read more here.

The Wall Street Journal offers a similar take on this issue from the chairman and chief executive of AutoNation Inc., the nation's largest car-dealer chain:

We've had five presidents in a row, including [the current] President Bush, tell us that America's dependence on imported oil is an issue of national security, and we don't have an energy policy that deals with the issue. We've gone from importing one-third of our oil to importing two-thirds. We need a strategy...which must include supply, technology and a change in consumer behavior. Increasing the gasoline tax by a dollar a gallon, phased in 10 cents a year over 10 years, is a very compelling statement to the American consumer that the party is over, that we're going a new way.

You can read the entire article here.