March 11, 2005
Gas prices are rising to what may be record levels.
The government predicts an average of $2.15 per gallon for regular sometime in the spring.
For some perspective, it is more than twice that amount in Europe, thanks in part to taxes that are higher than ours.
We have long possessed the technology to make cars that do not depend on petroleum alone, or even mainly.
The problem has been consumer reliance on the big gas guzzling machines leftover from an era in which gas was cheap and you could fill-up for as little as $3.
We can still have SUV's with hybrid engines.
We can still have luxury.
But if we want to free ourselves from high gas prices and, more importantly, from the grip of Middle East dictators who use oil as a weapon against us and fund their terror activities with oil profits, then we must do something immediately to change our way of life.
Otherwise, the oil money will be used by terrorists to change ours.
It's that simple and that important.
What are you driving?
Checkout a new hybrid and see if you could live with it.
Our immediate future might depend on it.
I'm Cal Thomas in Washington.
Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C. Watch his television show, After Hours with Cal Thomas, on the Fox News Channel, Saturdays at 11 p.m. Eastern Time.
