Updated: Don’t Buy A Drop of Oil Day?

So… I get this e-mail from a friend, telling me that on May 19th, I need to stand up against the oil companies and speak out about the outrageous price of gasoline in the United States.

*cough*

I beg your pardon? We have the cheapest gas prices in the world! These numbers are from February of this year, they are a little dated, but they definitely display that what is happening here doesn’t hold a candle to gas prices in Europe or Japan. The reason everyone walks to work… is… *drum roll* GASOLINE!

It’s expensive! This is why all the cars coming out of Japan get such great gas mileage. Fueling up an automobile in Japan is truly expensive!

Before you continue to get on your high horse about gasoline prices here in the US I have a few pieces of advice for you:

1. Stop driving big, hulking SUV’s that you never take off-road anyway and other I’m sorry about your penis-mobiles. The damned things get 10 miles to the gallon at best, and it costs you ten times as much money to fill up the tank as it takes me to fill my rice burner. Put simply… smaller vehicles use less gas. Stop wasting our precious resources by being a fool about your vehicle of choice.

2. Alternative fuel technologies are the only real solution to the oil problem. Yes, I realize that as the price of oil rises, so does everything else that we buy, do or think about doing. The solution to that is simple. Remove the oil companies’ strangle hold on gasoline by eliminating it from the equation. Donate to alternative fuel research projects.

3. Don’t whine to me about it if you can’t do these things.

Update: This is an interesting piece that discusses gas prices and what they are and really have been, after adjusting for inflation.