So it’s finally happened.  Gas prices here in Los Angeles have breached the $4/gallon mark, and I’m not just talking about the premium unleaded.  Granted, it was Memorial Day weekend when gas prices routinely go up anyway, but I spotted a station yesterday where the low-grade unleaded was $4.03/gallon.  So what did our fearless leader do in response?  He went to the Middle East to beg OPEC to increase production so we could have some cheaper prices.  Pretty please with sugar on top?  Unsurprisingly, they said no.

Sad to say that things like this are only going to get worse, since oil is [gasp] a finite commodity and it’s going to run out!  Yes, really!  There’s talk of $5/gallon by the end of the summer, which wouldn’t surprise me at all.  So while President Moron is bumbling around in the Middle East, generally making life worse for almost everyone on the planet, no one stopped him to say, “Hey, you know maybe we ought to invest in some alternative fuels and technologies that actually work a little better than this E85 crap and that also wouldn’t cause everyone to go into a panic about a food shortage.” He wants to put a man back on the moon, but at the rate we’re going, NASA’s budget for the project will be totally consumed by the fuel needed to power the rocket to send him up there.

Not everyone is having a bad time of it, though.  The New York Times says that — surprise, surprise — the gas companies are not just rolling in the dough, they’re swimming in it.  From the Feb. 1 issue:

Exxon Mobil reported Friday that it beat its own record for the highest profits ever recorded by any company, with net income rising 3 percent to $40.6 billion, thanks to surging oil prices. The company’s sales, more than $404 billion, exceeded the gross domestic product of 120 countries.  Exxon Mobil earned more than $1,287 of profit for every second of 2007.  The company also had its most profitable quarter ever. It said net income rose 14 percent, to $11.7 billion, or $2.13 a share, in the last three months of the year.  Chevron, the second-largest American oil company, said Friday that its profits rose 9 percent to $18.7 billion last year; Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday reported net income for 2007 of $31 billion, up 23 percent and the largest figure ever for a British company.

So while we’re paying through various orifices (orifii?) and consumer confidence is going down the tubes primarily because of it, the gas companies are raking it in… and they’re claiming it’s higher oil prices that are driving their profits.  Hang on, let me see if I can understand this — they’re paying more for the product, which means their expenses are going up, and yet they’re making record profits.  Gee, could that be because of the exorbitant prices they’re turning around and charging for their product??  Naaaaah… couldn’t be.

I know that my complaining and railing against this kind of thing won’t make a difference, and I know I’m definitely not the only one who’s affected by this.  I know that I love driving and that I will continue to fill up my gas tank (despite grumbling and mentally feeling my wallet get pinched as I do it), even though my contribution is driving a Honda that gets 30+ miles per gallon.  I know that President Idiot will continue to probably line his pockets with oil money so the companies will be allowed to run unfettered, and whoever hits the White House next probably won’t have much power over the matter either.  But it doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it.