The public has been in an uproar about paying an average of $2.20 for a gallon of gas.

In the midst of their hysteria, they’ve pointed to several culprits: the government, the

gasoline companies, even the defenseless man behind the counter of the local Chevron.

While the greedy oil barons and the congressmen have played a role in the gas crisis, one of the biggest contributors has been fortunate enough to elude the public spot light. Of course, this is because they are criminals masquerading as friends to the environment. They are none other than the tree-hugging environmentalist.

Their extreme regulations for oil refineries and special blend requirements for gasoline have been some of the causes that have driven up the cost of the nation’s gas. Although the environment is well-worth preserving, the environmentalists have gotten out of hand turning their cause into a crazed crusade.

According to Capitalism Magazine, 10 refineries representing 20 percent of the state’s refining capacity were closed between 1985 and 1995, because they didn’t measure up to environmental regulations. According to the The Free Republic news page, as a result the steady decline of refineries, the nation’s old refineries are operating at 95 percent of their capacity, which leaves little time for critical repairs and upgrades.

Even with the U.S. refineries running at full speed, they are unable to keep up with the nation’s ever-growing consumption of fossil fuels. The demands have driven the country to import a large percentage of the nation’s oil, 60 percent to be exact, according to a 2004 survey by Gibson Consulting. Yet, the environmentalists are not the least bit alarmed by the statistics for the U.S. consumption of imported fossil fuels. As the U.S. leaders plead with the Middle-Eastern oil tycoons and Americans scrounge in their pockets for gas money, the environmentalists have given the nation an ultimatum: Drive “Green Cars” America.

“Green Cars,” hybrid electric or hydrogen-powered vehicles, are what the tree-hugging, saddling wearing radicals are driving for. The transition to more environmentally sound vehicles would in our plants best interest. However, the idea of converting a nation of millions into green-car drivers overnight isn’t rational, unless the environmentalists plan on driving a small percentage of cars, to prove their reliability to every Americans doorstep.

Environmentalists have a choke hold on the nation’s oil industry. And instead of resorting to pleading with Middle-Eastern oil industries, Saudi handholding and balancing our living expenses around a tank of gas, we should take environmentalists out of the picture, once and for all, and leave all the environmental concerns to an average citizen devoid of misanthropy and radical thinking.