Can we just get one point straight about gasoline prices? That point would be that the reason gas prices are so high is because we keep buying gasoline no matter what they do with the price.

Demand is what drives gasoline prices. As long as the people who own shares in oil companies can rely on you and me to keep puttering around in our cars every chance we get, they are going to keep pushing prices higher and higher.

Big companies are generally greedy. They don't care about profits as much as they care about maximizing profits. What they do to anyone else matters not a whit to them.

That goes triple for oil companies. They crank up the prices because they can. They know we will gripe and complain and they know we will be passing on the latest boycott idea to everyone on our e-mail contacts list, but they also know that eventually we'll forget all about it and keep right on driving our cars.

Remember, when you were furious to see the price of gas rise to 60 cents a litre? Remember how you saw red when they hit 80 cents, then a dollar? Each time, the price eventually backed off a little and we all forgot how mad we were. We rushed to any gas station where the price was a little lower and we filled up.

The usual Internet boycott campaign has been making the rounds. I'm always suspicious of these because they always suggest we boycott one or two companies "to begin with" but they never seem to go beyond that. Could it be some functionary in one of the competing companies trying to bolster profits a wee bit? Hmmm. They wouldn't do that, would they?

Anyway, boycotts won't work because we'll just buy gas like we always do, we'll just be lining someone else's pockets instead of the shareholders of whatever company we boycott. Besides, there are small communities, such as ours, where there is only one gas station.

By the way, it should be an embarrassment to UPI that their Thornbury gas bar made it to the top of the list as most expensive in the region last week. Remember when we all commended UPI for not jacking up their prices during the big power outage a few years ago, even though the Esso station that used to be just down the street jacked their price up to take advantage of the situation.

(People were driving here from all over the area because we had power when no one else around us did.)

I just wish we could get a straight answer from the oil companies about their regional pricing. Why should gas be more expensive here than in surrounding communities? Why is one station in Flesherton able to be consistently cheaper than everyone else?

I've asked this question and the usual answer has to do with transportation. That's baloney. How much more can it cost to transport gasoline to Flesherton as compared to Thornbury? And the average price in Huntsville, according to A-Channel news, has been the lowest in the area, five or six cents below prices in Barrie. How is it cheaper to transport gasoline to Huntsville than to Barrie?

No, boycotts won't work unless we boycott every oil company by just not buying and using as much gasoline. Cut back by 10 per cent. It's not that difficult and I'm not the most fervent when it comes to leaving the car behind. All the same, walking now and then, or riding a bicycle when weather and circumstances permit, cuts my gas use.

I know there are those who need a vehicle for business and work, but even they could probably find ways to cut down a little.

Complaining to governments won't work because they seem unwilling to take the one step that would solve this problem. We would need the G-8 governments to decide, as a group, that they are going to regulate gasoline prices at a level that covers the costs of production, distribution, etc., plus a reasonable profit margin. Currently, the price we pay at the pump has nothing to do with actual costs and everything to do with increasing profits.

Mind you, there's a double-edged sword there. It would be much better for all of us if we stop using gasoline, period. That's why we need to think about switching to new hybrid vehicles.

Forget bio-fuels, by the way. The oil companies love them, because they still reap the profits. Besides, we're beginning to hear about them running farmers in Third World countries off their land so they can grow bio-fuel crops. Food shortages are already being reported. Bear that in mind next time you watch one of those warm and fuzzy oil company commercials.

No, the bottom line is that the sooner we rid ourselves of the oil companies, the better. We need to switch to electric, and we need to move toward generating our own electricity. After all, the minute we're all driving electric cars, you can bet the big oil companies will be in the electricity business.

The difference is that you probably don't have an oil well in your back yard, but you can use solar or wind power to generate your own electricity and thumb your nose at the big corporations.