Your Opinion: The "true cost' of gasoline

Dear Editor:

Stock market junkies keep abreast of the market. Farmers are tuned into beef, pork and grain prices. Most of us are watching the price of gasoline. It's easy as gas stations all over America post the prices. Any change in world markets and you see the effect in the next hour.

On Sept. 24 Jim Brocksmith wrote to lament once again about our local cartel in Jefferson City that keeps prices here perpetually higher than surrounding communities. Brocksmith was concerned about a 12 cent difference that amounted to about 3 percent more for local citizens. We cannot drive 30 miles to get a better rate and come out ahead. But most of us do fill up elsewhere before returning to the mother city.

This discussion misses the real cost of gasoline to you and me. Economist's factor in all the costs to produce gas for consumers and the true price is in a range of $9-$15.

This was discussed in a recent Climate Change Lobby regional meeting here in Jefferson City by Dr. Laura McCann, an economist for the University of Missouri School of Agriculture. Furthermore a Department of Energy study reports that our government has spent $7 trillion dollars in the last three decades to subsidize oil production. What is kept from you and I are the externalities of cost in producing gasoline and selling it for $3.10 a gallon. Just Google "the true cost of gasoline" and consider what you find.

Our government heavily subsidizes the oil industry to produce and import gasoline. This subsidy hinders alternative energies getting a fair deal and insures that your tax bills will remain high. Furthermore, we have engaged in endless war to insure oil supplies and to secure shipping lanes to bring foreign oil to America.

You are missing the real target Mr. Brocksmith. It's 300 percent worse than you think. You are actually paying three times the amount for transportation than you think.

But consider this: politicians from both sides of the aisle have played this game. Anytime the price at the pump seems too high, they rush in to offer plans to keep the prices at the gas station low.

Americans are dazzled by this shell game. Instead we need to deal with the realities of the "big con." Energy is not cheap. It will only get more expensive. Alternative energy is our best answer. It's cleaner and renewable.