Comments on: Truckers Protest Record High Gas Prices

Truck Drivers Gather In Washington To Blast Horns, Rally At Capitol

[michellem99-2009]

I told my friend a barrel will hit 150..Vinve said to me a gallion of gas will be 5.00 dallors to fill up yer car..Rudy that figgars the govt..I walk but they don''t need them trails when the rails are needed..There are places to walk. It sounds to me they did not want to maintain the rails- a dumb move..I lived in small towns and we heard the trains run. I learnt to never try to beat them on foot. In the 70s they had long trains and I used to count the cars and there were over 100 cars. They had the carboost back then. I use the bus as do my friend.
They are putting in light rail to move people in Seattle. People use to walk on the tracks and when I first met my friend he would..I told him that was not smart. Like the big rigs they can''t stop on a dime..We need to use the truck,rail.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Trucker Dave Gares said it costs up to $1,400 to fill up his rig with 220 gallons of diesel fuel. That calculates out to $6.36 a gallon. If I were him I certainly would be upset since the average diesel price is more like $4.20 a gallon. He would wise up a find a place that sells at a lower price he would feel better about it by not getting ripped off." Posted by cbsusercbs

Understanding what you read is just as impoprtant as reading. The average price is $4.20, that means some places lower, some places higher.

If diesel is 4.20 a gallon in say, New Jersey, what good does that do Mr. Gares if he is in say, San Diego, where fuel prices tend to be the highest in the nation? Can he drive on an empty tank to Jersey to fill up? Can someone bring him a full tank from Jersey?

C''mon, think while you read.

[incog-nito]

If the truckers can barely get by right now, wait until oil gets to $200 a barrel. That''s when the real fun begins.

[rudy654-2009]

Why are they not using the rails are they falling aparat as well.


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Posted by MichelleM99 at 02:17 AM

In my area, the government had the rails removed. They had been there nearly a hundred years and then they removed them. They called it "rails to trails"

[michellem99-2009]

I am pissed and if we start to protest this. bush will have protesters gunned down..He will turn the military on Americans. Oh yes..Sure I feel as ye..Yhe oil will run out..Why are they not using the rails are they falling aparat as well.

[rudy654-2009]

While Europe and other developed nations have a rail system that facilitates transportation everywhere, we here in the US are stuck with a highway and freeway system that is in severe need of repair. With NAFTA''s allowance of truckers coming down these freeways and highways, it is like one humongous traffic jam from state to state.

[rudy654-2009]

To bring relief, the truckers are urging Congress to stop subsidizing big oil companies, release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves, and end exports of oil from Alaska, among other things.
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Wow! Hooray for the truckers! They have it right! Stop the bloody subsidizing of these bastaards and stop the exports. It''s like we are paying them through our taxes and then again at the pump, and they go HO Ho HO we have great profits this year! Nananana!

[djberson]

renrivers, you are totally correct. We need to go back to the rails.

[Renegade.Rivers]

Years ago, decisions were made that has handicapped our country ever since. Thousands of miles of rail track were taken off the routes, and because of that the demand for trucks to deliver goods increased immensely because of the loss of the rail system. It wasn''t so many decades ago that even small cities had rail access, and local passenger runs. Before that most cities had trolley cars that covered the city. Then big oil saw a chance to expand their market. Oil companies and auto makers bought out many of the rail lines, and trolley car lines, and encouraged everyone to buy cars, and trucks. After all, if every car used as much gas as one trolley car, and one truck used as much fuel to haul a load as a train carrying 250 or more loads, it was a boon to their bottom line. What a waste of energy and money this has all been, and as always, it has been the middle class who has footed the bill. I too, am "as mad as he11," and I just don''t see how we can keep on taking it.

[pensacola88]

This sounds and looks like a retread of the 1979 Jimmy Carter Days when inflation was 13.2% and gas prices were soaring. Truckers were angry and making protests just like this one! We were tied up in the Mideast with Iran and some extremist fundamentalist (Khomeni) had our economy wrapped around his little finger. It required an 71 year old actor (Ronald Reagan) to charm the public into a honeymoon that didn''t last too long. He got oil prices down by opening up our economy to Arab investors and since our economy was down, they bough in a low market and reaped the profits when the economy improved. They still got rich at our expense.

[jimfinster]

The title should read high DIESEL prices. Not gas.

[cbsusercbs]

Trucker Dave Gares said it costs up to $1,400 to fill up his rig with 220 gallons of diesel fuel. That calculates out to $6.36 a gallon. If I were him I certainly would be upset since the average diesel price is more like $4.20 a gallon. He would wise up a find a place that sells at a lower price he would feel better about it by not getting ripped off.

Fact of the matter is that other modes of transportation like rail and water use much less energy. It is inevitable in our world of high energy use and especially the U.S. that the days of cheap energy are over. It''s too bad our government and big business has had a policy of cheap energy not paying the true price. Europe has been taxing petroleum products at a high rate and now we see the much better position they are in with their network or rail and canals. Our country has allowed rail and canals developed a century ago to be abandoned instead of improving them.

[sjc_1]

We should do more truck/rail freight, where a truck takes the load to a rail yard and it goes long distance by rail. It is much more fuel efficient to haul freight by rail than it is to haul it by diesel truck.

[timdgrim]

Good for the truckers! I''d like to see about 10,000 of those trucks surrounding the White House all blowing their horns every day. Of course Bush would call them terrorrrisstsss and call out the National Guard...oops..they''re all in Iraq!

[element51]

If the highways are the arteries of the nation the truckers are the oxygen. They carry the things that we need to stay alive. Without them we simply cannot survive. Big oil knows this but still they continue to raise prices higher and higher knowing full well that they are killing us. NOW is when we desperately need some leadership. But we have NONE. It is obvious that we, the citizens, are going to have to take things into our own hands. I think the place to start is with the trucking industry. But we can''t ask these guys to stick their necks out and then remain silent. We have to support them and stand by their side. The last time I took to the streets was during the Viet Nam war but I am ready to do it again. Come on America, get your heads out of your arses and wake up. Let''s find a LEADER who has the guts to stand up and say ENOUGH. I''M MAD AS H*LL AND I''M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!

[infinitii-2009]

If the trucking industry organized a strike for 24 hours, they would paralyze the United States. The states would lose on toll road money as well as boycotting gas. My husband is an independent cross country truck driver and the fuel to fill his tanks is over $1200 per fill up. Diesel fuel is currently $4.59 and up depending on the area. Alot of independent driver have gone out of business because of this and our government isn''t helping at all and this has caused some drivers and companies to declare bankrupt. I''m afraid there is going to be a state-wide bankrupt filing among drivers because of this. Still some trucking companies have gone out of business, on the brink of going out of business and filing bankrupt. The trucking companies are afraid to go on strike, in fear that they will lose their contracts. The way I see it is, they need to lose the contracts if they can''t get paid a much higher rate to haul the freight. It is really aweful. The reality of it all is that the trucking industry can put us all in fear if they shut down, everyone will lose.

[michellem99-2009]

It is time congress live on the same as the poor. Yep..that goes for bush..I love bell pepper..Vince came home with one..I had to pry the cost out of him $i.60 for one..I realise every thing is trucked and it is us below the poverity line that suffer..congress need to stop living like they are rich..they are not..Vince told me he heard talk years ago that the govt will one day force every one into the street to kill each other..

[ermengarde11]

shanev, you''ve got a point. And why aren''t truckers getting subsidies instead of farming conglomerates, the recipients of this money sometimes have never planted a seed on their land. They are profitting from every possible aspect of owning farmland they don''t even use or if they do, they are getting away with murder.

Google "Cowboy Starter Kit" and see what nonsense is going on. This money should go to real farmers and truckers and food banks etc. etc. It seems this admininstration is bent on doing every possible thing to cause more stress on everyone. Are they absolutely insane? Can we have them psychoanalyzed to see if they are fit for employment in the federal government? If not, WHY not???

[ermengarde11]

It''s about time SOMEBODY raised hell! What is wrong with the general public, why are there not protests at every gas station? At every city hall? At the US Capitol every day? NOBODY is addressing this issue, and Bush and his cronies are laughing all the way to their bank vaults. I wonder if there will even be a response to this protest, it seems Washington is pretending there''s no issue here.

Hooray for the truckers, and why is diesel now MORE expensive than gas, when it used to be cheaper? It seems there''s an agenda to price people out of groceries and everything else that''s trucked to its destination.

The food banks that I have to depend on have at least doubled their clients in the past year. And we get less of the more useful canned goods like meats -- even tuna and such are a rarity now.

God help us all. Bush sure isn''t going to, he''s only helping himself.

[thelambs4]

When George heard those truckers protesting the high price of fuel, George was heard to have said, "Mission Accomplished"!