Gas prices demand change in state, D.C.

Watching the price of gas go up 30 cents per gallon in DuPage County in less than a week tells me the time has come to demand change from politicians in both Washington and Springfield. In Washington, there are options available to curb the abuse of commodities speculators that are driving up the cost of fuel and then everything else to consumers.

However, Congress and the Obama administration do little or nothing to temper that greed. In Springfield, the state is managed so pathetically that the increasing state sales tax on gasoline is used as just another way to raise revenues to keep Illinois’ incredible 6,800 units of government on everyone’s backs.

President Obama could direct the Department of Energy to release oil from the national reserve in an allocation determined by a lottery. Every week the DOE could “roll the dice” to determine how much if any inventory should be released and for how long and at what rate. The subsequent unpredictability of the oil market would make it very risky business for speculators to manipulate volatile short-term oil contracts that are driving up the cost of oil and then gasoline.

After enough speculators get burned, some of the “gaming” of the commodity market will disappear. The amount of oil actually taken from the reserve could be relatively small but enough to curb the abuse of consumers by speculators.

In Springfield, the recent tax increases have accomplished nothing except to delay the inevitable reform that will occur by default. Whether that happens sooner or later depends on when the people of Illinois become fed up enough to support a new statewide centrist political party that curbs the partisan Democrat/Republican fighting that dominates. Until then, the least they could do in Springfield is repeal the sales tax on gasoline.

Charles Murphy

Glen Ellyn