Axe the Gas Tax?

"Axe the Gas Tax" was the 38 point Impact headline that ran in the ever-so objective Province last Wednesday. Axe the ass backwards hacks that pose as journalists. The gas tax is not the problem. The problem is that mainstream corporate media have been ignoring the warnings of geologists who have been predicting since 1956 that we'd run out of cheap oil some time soon. The fact is we are simply living beyond our means. We get our petroleum-fertilized food trucked half way across the continent. We ship plastic fads and gadgets from China to satisfy our appetite for cheap technology. We live in the glorified parking lots of sanitized suburban grids.

Speaking of the suburbs, did you hear they want to expand the freeway? Well, when I ran as a Green Party candidate in the last election, I'm sure I lost votes because I wouldn't change my mind on the twinning of the Port Mann Bridge, which was in my riding of Surrey-Tynehead. Why not invest that money in your community so you don't have to drive downtown? I mean, when I was canvassing I tried to find a place where lots of people would be gathered, you know like how we have the Vancouver Art Gallery or English Bay, or Kits. Well I found where all the people were, in the town centre of course: Guildford Town Centre!

But the good news is that Vancouver may be a little more prepared for the end of the age of oil. We already have a highly livable urban core, what with Yaletown, the Westend, and Coal Harbour. City planners are taking cycling very seriously as evidenced by the controversial decision to reserve two lanes of traffic for bikes on Burrard Street Bridge. Our transit system, despite the bureaucratic stranglehold of TransLink, is pretty decent. There is a big environmental movement that has been actively pursuing alternative forms of energy and car free alternatives such as Car Free Day And BCHydro isn't yet completely privatized.

Which brings us to the recent hijacking of Terasen Gas, formerly the publicly owned BCGas by the 15 billion dollar energy conglomerate Kinder Morgan. No biggies, CEO Richard Kinder was only President of Enron before Kenny Lay and a good friend of George W. Bush, what's the problem? Business is business you NIMBY whiners. Look, Christ is coming soon anyways, forgeddaboutit.

But seriously, I don't understand how we can get fucked up the ass like this. We are fucking pussies. ScienceWorld is now the TelusSphere. Coke made UBC take out all the drinking water fountains because students weren't drinking enough Coke. Some creepy company named after the Roman emperor Maximus is in charge of MSP and subject to who the hell knows what kind of crazy PATRIOT ACT, Big Brother backroom deals. And now, they won't pay us for the damages lost in the softwood lumber war. WTF? Tariffs on oil? Hell no, just sell them our pipelines.

On the other hand, maybe this is a desperate power grab by a flailing empire. They are grasping at any attempt to secure oil sources. With the cost of the Iraq war now costlier than Vietnam (accounting for inflation), the housing bubble on the verge of popping, and the US running both budget and trade deficits, economic collapse is inevitable.

Good times.