California Gold?

I remember when I first bought my truck. I am not lying when I tell you that I love my Dodge diesel dually. But back then money was tight, and I would be lying if I said the monthly payments weren’t concerning.

I figured that since diesel fuel was cheaper than gas and the truck would get 18 miles per gallon, I could make it. I did and now 239,000 miles later my wife and I have the same conversation every year, “Why don’t we budget for a new truck for you?” ….”Honey, she’s just getting broke in and there isn’t an inch of rust on her anywhere. ” My wife then reminds me that we live in Southern California and there isn’t any rust on any of the vehicles here. Doesn’t matter. I love my truck.

Today I filled my truck up at $4.47 per gallon. For some unknown reason diesel is now more expensive than premium gasoline and I just spent $5.16 more on just one tank of fuel than I ever did on a monthly truck payment. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned.

I am lucky. I can work from home. What about my neighbors that spend two hours a day commuting to work? What about the carpoolers at my daughters school? What about all the Americans that are now having to decide between buying groceries or gasoline?

Utilities are also up and everyone knows that we are running out of oil!

Everyone also agrees that we need to stop drilling for oil in order to preserve the environment.

What if everybody is wrong?

Santa Barbara is one of the most beautiful places in America. Swimmers will tell you that the water can be really oily. When you get out of the water, you had better shower well, or it can burn your skin.

Surfers will tell you where the most awesome breaks are. They will also tell you to bring a bottle of rubbing alcohol and rag to clean the tar off of your board after your done catching waves.

Why? Because there is so much oil and methane gas under Santa Barbara Bay that it seeps to the surface on a huge scale. If that weren’t bad enough, when it rains the runoff from the oil seeps in the Santa Susana mountains makes it even worse.

The bigger the rainstorm, the more dead wildlife.

The Middle East is literally on fire. Japan is battling a nuclear disaster. Is it possible that the United States of America has such an energy abundance that oil and gas are leaking from the earth?

Yep.

I have lived in California for 26 years. I always thought that all the tar balls on the beach were from leaking oil platforms in the bay.

I was wrong.