Ethanol and oil profits

Just two items... numbers I found about today:

• You know there haven't been any new gasoline refineries built in the US since the late '70s, right? This is the main cause for the high gas prices, because we have the oil, but we can't refine it. However.... in recent years, 119 ethanol refineries have been built and 77 are under construction! Can anybody get this? SO far, everybody I know puts gasoline in their cars. All my friends eat the corn. Could anybody find any logic in this?
• Oil companies make profits equal to about 10c/gallon. They have some of the smallest profit margins in our economy, however the liberals blame them for gas price gouging. At the same time, at the federal level, the US government makes about 18c/gallon from taxes. State taxes vary, but the highest is New York, which makes about 60c/gallon. So next time you blame oil companies profits for what you pay at the pump, think twice and blame the real profiteers of all this.

Thoughts about the environment after my Yosemite trip

A few random thoughts about the state of the planet, just went through my mind during my trip to the Yosemite, including the drive from the San Francisco airport:

• It was second half of June and I saw a lot of snow covered mountains during my flights. I have no idea what routes Al Gore flies in his private jet. EIther he makes a big detour, consumming extra fuel, or he just ignores it. I think it's the latter, since he proved that he doens't care about facts.
• Crossing the SF Bay, you can't see anything on the shores, everything being covered by thick pollution. Isn't it ironic that three of the most green, liberal and environmental cities in America (San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York) are the most polluted? Wanna see a clean city? Go to Houston, TX.
• Hiking the sequoia groves of Yosemite I learned about the effects of a hundred years of environmentalism in the park. Because of the special care these woods have received from the greens (the eco-equivalent of the Nanny state), sequoias are not seeding anymore and the ground is full of junk. Now they have to start controlled fires every year, until the natural balance of the forest returns to where it was before the enviro-wackos took over.
• For this, I credit Dennis Miller: Those hybrid car drivers in California don't care about the future of Mother Earth. Truth is that we won't come up with an alternative to oil until we actually run out of oil. That's why I drive an SUV: To deplete the oil reserves and force humanity to come up with something better. The hybrid owners just prolong this grueling ordeal...