Fuel Costs Influences Emergency Care

Consider this fallout of higher fuel costs.  Nine of the local eighteen fire district's have quit responding to the more minor medical requests.  This leaves those requests in the hands of Louisville Metro EMS.

Part of this decision lies in having separate boards and taxing districts for the fire departments and for Metro EMS.  Each fire district must consider the funds they do have and how they manage it.  This sticks them smack in the middle of the proverbial rock and a hard place.  Raise taxes, get complaints on how they used the tax dollars given to them, or cut services.  Ouch.Consider this fallout when John Yarmuth gives his answers on how he's going to fix the real emergency of higher fuel costs.  Consider his answers:

• Combating Speculation - Chase off so called speculators means less cash in the futures market, making them less fluid.  Consider the success stories of how companies like Southwest Airlines use hedging to keep their prices low.  This goes out the window if "speculators" flee the market.

• "Use it or Lose it” - This is a push for oil companies to use the 68 million acres they already have leases on, instead of drilling at ANWR.  Sure, there is oil there.  It boils down to a cost/benefit issue.  There is SO much more oil at ANWR that could be gotten by drilling few holes to get to.  Drilling in the 68 million acres will require more drilling rigs, more manpower, more chances of oil spills hurting the environment, and more chances of hurting areas people actually visit (ever been to ANWR?).

• Stop filling the SPR - Oh, great idea!  Quit filling our reserves so that when we have a bigger emergency, we don't have anything to pull from.  Brillant!

• Release Oil from the SPR - Coupled with the "Stop filling the SPR" produces a double whammy on our reserves.  What part of the word "reserves" don't we understand here?

• Long-term Solutions - This is a push towards alternate energies.  Bravo!  Great idea!  I'm all for it.  Just one question - How long is it going to take us before we see this in the real world?  10 years?  20 years? 50 years?  What do we do in the meantime?  Solar technology have been worked on since at least the 1970's.  So has wind turbine technology.  How much of that is out there now?

Come on, John, open up more drilling.  We know that will work.

-Colonel Steve