Northwest Airlines Corp. is Michigan's largest passenger air carrier which has been forced to raise airfare.

"Fuel is our No. 1 cost driver. It's a larger expense to us than labor cost," said Tammy Lee, Northwest's vice president of corporate communication. "The only way you can recoup the higher cost of fuel is by raising fares slightly or by taking capacity out of the market."

The Detroit Free Press reported that as o March 14, Northwest was projecting it would spend $5.2 billion more on fuel, or $1.5 billion more than last year. Even if oil dropped to $88 a barrel, Northwest expects it will still spend $4.4 billion on fuel.

With the nation having a weaker economy and Americans reducing their demand for oil by only making one stop to the supermarket a week rather than numerous runs, the price could fall.

Others, however, are arguing with China and India industrializing and increasing their demand for oil - their economies will continue to support high fuel prices.

Laurie Falter who is an oil industry economist for the Energy Information Administration is very optimistic. She believes that gas prices have already peaked over Memorial Day and that prices should decline throughout the remainder of the year to about $2.95 by December.

Falter, though, does not believe oil will retreat to $60 per barrel of which we observed last year - at least not for several years.

OPEC has reduced production and has revealed very little enthusiasm to modify policies at a time of growing global demand.

While OPEC refuses to do anything about the rising oil crises Maxine Waters has a plan. During Senate hearings last week, California Democrat, Maxine Waters, told Shell Oil Company President, John Hoffmeister that she would like to "socialize" the oil industry.

Last time I checked, we didn't live in Venezuela and Hugo Chavez was not our communist dictator. But it sounds like we have a few Congressmen who would love to follow suit.

Socializing our country is a goal of Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama as well, not just a dream of Maxine Walters. Liberals thrive on more power, bigger government, and more control. If we let Obama or Clinton into the white house our free market could be overwrought with communist policy and bureaucratic tape.

Oil companies are making $0.08 on every gallon, the United States government is making close to $0.20 on every gallon and Michigan is making about $0.25 cents on every gallon.

Looking at those numbers, I can see why the loony left wants more control of the oil industry. It seems they are already doing a fantastic job at bringing down prices or at least profiting from gas prices.

As I fill up my tank I will continue to support the capitalistic free market society I have come to love and I will remain optimistic that prices will eventually fall. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.

-Chaz Oswald