An Open Letter to the Candidates

Dear Senators Obama and McCain,

My name is Carrie, and I'm a typical mom in suburban Atlanta. I have three little boys, and I am a public school teacher. While I am a social conservative, I haven't yet decided who I will be voting for this November. Right now, the person who can solve this problem may be the person I vote for.

You see, here in Atlanta, we have no gas. That's right. Two weeks after a hurricane that did only minimal damage to refineries in Texas, and our gas shortage gets worse every day. Worse! What is going on?? I have been trying to conserve gas, but I do have to drive to work everyday, and there is no mass transit between my home and work. The only places I go right now are work on Monday through Friday and church on Sunday and Wednesday. How else can I conserve? It seems ridiculous that in a major metropolitan area, there are people who have to take vacation days because they can't find a gas station with gas. Then, if we do find gas, it's over $4.00 a gallon. So not only are we suffering a gas shortage, we are also being gouged in price.

What I want to know, is what will you do to prevent this? I don't want to hear about renewable fuels, because I have a car that runs on gas right now, and that car is going to stay my primary source of transportation for a while. What will you do the next time there is a hurricane (and we all know there will be a next time) to ensure that there are parts of the country that are not out of gas? What is your plan for this crisis that is affecting a large part of the population that you want to lead? We can all talk about wonderful pie in the sky theories about becoming energy independent, but the problem I'm facing right now has nothing to do with oil supplies and everything to do with domestic distribution. What can you do to fix that?

Thanks.