Some news outlets are predicting that gasoline prices will increase this spring to near $4/gallon. Remember in the years before Bush/Cheney when we paid less than $2/gallon. The millionaires that we’ll be voting for next year don’t really care that gasoline costs have doubled. Fifty, sixty, seventy or even a hundred dollars to fill your tank doesn’t matter to folks who have money to burn. It matters to the poor and low income who have to make decisions about health care, food or fuel. Where I live gasoline is $3.29/gallon. Surrounding areas where more affluent people live the price is generally lower. I’ve noticed in the past several years that there seems to be a conscious effort to victimize the poor. It seems that merchants in Franklinville, New York, especially those that sell gasoline, are programmed to victimize the poor.
He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker, but he who is gracious to the needy honors Him.–Prov. 14:31
Country Contemplative 
It is amazing to me how we can “elect” an oil man, go to war for oil, but still see this constant increase in gas prices,which is, as you say, a tax on the poor.
But what’s really a testament to their powers of propaganda and mind control is that no one gets up and calls shenanigans on the whole thing.
It’s all part of the plan. Our corporately controlled media keeps most from seeing the real deal by buying into the wedge issues and accentuating them. I noticed that the Chinese are going to move towards cleaner burning fuels, while we move away from that and toward the use of more fossil fuels with lower standards than we ought to have. The entire blame shouldn’t fall on Bush. Reagan undid much of what Carter did in the late ’70s. Clinton increased the speed limit and withheld federal funds from any state that didn’t increase their speed limit. The Bush administration has rewarded gas guzzlers with tax breaks. People making $100,000 a year are inconvenienced by $4 and $5 per gallon gasoline. People making half that much and less are crucified with those prices. The poor don’t get to drive hybrids.
There is no equating conservation with holiness which is actually very Franciscan and Scotian. The convenient dichotomy of the spiritual and material is emphasized. An over emphasis on personal piety without any circumspect view that honoring the earth, creation and each other who all bear the imprint of the Most High is of utmost importance. Too often the church has allowed right to life arguments be limited to strictly abortion. In my view all life is sacred, the very earth itself and our environment is part of the continuum, but we’ve not allowed that more inclusive view to win out. We’ve settled instead for the dichotomy and that will be our undoing. 🙂
It is not necessary to drive a hybrid to conserve gas (though I drive a hybrid geared to efficiency, the Honda Civic Hybrid, and have talked others into doing the same.) Nor are all hybrids geared to maximize fuel efficiency – some of the new hybrids are geared toward greater power.
I have said, however, over the last year of driving this car that I wish more cars came equipped with a guage for fuel efficiency, because paying attention to that guage has helped me to drive more mindfully – paying more attention to what my fellow drivers are doing, so that I can keep my efficiency numbers high. Despite media assertions, it *is* possible, even on less than ideal terrain, to safely achieve fuel effiencies close to the advertized numbers. (i.e. I do not do things like turn my car off at high speeds or tailgate trucks.) In fact, I feel that I drive more safely by paying attention to fuel efficiency – I leave plenty of stopping distance, drive more slowly, and so forth.
What drives me nuts is watching public transportation be ignored. And airlines receive massive subsidies while passenger rail (which is significantly more efficient) languishes.
Even though gas prices have gone up, it seems that people have not changed their driving habits much and large, fuel-inefficient cars are as popular as ever. This shows that people in the US are basically fine with $3/gallon gas. I think the price would have to go up a lot to make most people change.