Last year, when gas prices soared past the $3 per gallon mark, North Kitsap residents were up in arms. It was an outrage, after all, and the hunt was on here and throughout the country for unseemly gas station owners who were price gouging.

The tactic was sort of like the hopeless war on drugs in which the Feds bust the street dealer for selling a dime bag of crack whilst the Colombian cartels have lunch with the politicians. Ah, the swift and vengeful hand of justice.

All was not lost as sellers of so called “econo” cars that get 35 mpg and hybrids started making their pitch as working class residents tried to figure out how exactly they were going to make ends meet. It seemed to make sense, pay an extra $5,000-$10,000 for a vehicle that will eventually save you that at the pump. Eventually.

Seeing that it was now the environmentally-friendly thing to do, Hollywood jumped onboard. Buying gold-plated hybrids to drop the ol’ trophy wife or husband off on Rodeo Drive for a quick spree and blowing the “profit margin” of the efficient cars by a few grand. But who’s counting? Movie stars could afford to gas up and drive gold-plated tanks after all, but that’s not as PC, of course.

Meanwhile back in NK, everyone who didn’t have the bread to spend on a super efficient vehicle felt the pinch and after watching the hikes continue, finally got fed up.

The general uproar persisted until new age oil barons felt the trickle of sweat begin to form on the backs of their collective, recently massaged and expensively cologned necks, and lo and behold, prices dropped. Sort of.

All of the sudden $2.50 per gallon became the new $2.10-$2.25 per gallon.

Looks like $3 will soon be the new $2.50 though. And, oddly enough, this go ‘round, no one seems to be complaining. And since no one is, the excuses (It’s the war. It’s Iran. We need to drill in Alaska. Umm, Initiative 695?) are also being kept in check. Possibly being saved for a rainy day.

And so it is. Gas is over the $3 per gallon mark and the general consumer is once again over the oil barrel. Meanwhile, the only folks who are saving big bucks at the gas pump are those who can afford to spend on new cars.

The 2007 listing of the top 10 most fuel efficient cars points out that said vehicles get anywhere from 30 mpg city/36 highway to upwards of 50 mpg city/60 highway), depending on how fast one drives and/or whether or not you have a passenger, a dog who likes to ride shotgun and stick his head out the window — thus reducing the aerodynamics — or whether you actually go faster than 55 mph on the highway.

Great deal, right? Somewhere along the line, in oh say, the last 30 years, looks and get up and go in autos outshone gas mileage. Take the Datsun B-210: low power, ugly as sin and at its prime back when Disco was king in the ‘70s. Gas mileage was 37 mpg city, 50 mpg highway and you didn’t even have to plug it in at night.

So as folks regale their scientific achievements and drop 20 large to save a few bucks at the pump, we’re actually moving backward as far as fuel efficiency goes.

But since no one is complaining, few at the top are paying much attention.

And no doubt, when the pinch gets too tight, those who can least afford it will speak up and the barons will back down for a while, knowing fully that with the $3 plateau broken they can shoot for $3.25 to $3.50 in the next year or so and every now and again throw us a bone by dropping down to $2.95 or so.

Or we could all ditch out on our super SUVs large enough to accommodate the starting lineup of the Seattle Seahawks and trucks big enough to tow the Great Wall of China and drop a few hundred dollars on a fleet of rusted out B-210s. We’d all save money and gas. But where’s the appeal in that?