Let’s put the cost of gasoline and energy in proper perspective. A gallon of gas in the 1920s using today’s money would be $10 a gallon, according to a Cato Institute report. While energy costs might be higher than last year, the typical family pays about 8 percent of their income for energy as compared to 15 percent in the 1970s. So, adjusted for inflation, times are much better than before.

Putting this aside, it takes real chutzpah for the Democratic-controlled House to pass legislation aimed at punishing so-called price gouging by oil companies and gas stations. A subsidiary of the radical environmentalists, the Democratic Party has done everything to restrict the supply of energy production in the U.S. We can’t drill in Alaska, we can’t mine coal, we can’t drill off any coast, we can’t build nuclear power plants and we have not built a refinery to increase gasoline production in the past 30 years.

Happily, such liberal madness has not and never will affect the rest of the world, or the price of energy would be even higher.

It’s very simple; restrict the supply of energy while demand goes up and you have rising prices. Isn’t it hypocritical that those who help drive the prices up look for a scapegoat other than themselves

You would think the Democrats would applaud the rise in prices as a way of curbing America’s so-called insatiable greed for gasoline. Wasn’t it former Vice President Al Gore who said the car was the greatest threat to humanity and the Earth

With the prices rising, people might finally cut back on their driving. The environmentalists should give the oil companies a medal for saving the environment by raising prices. This will lead to fewer carbon footprints, won’t it

Scott Hurban, a longtime Tracy resident, is a high school teacher in Stockton.