This is a guest opinion column
Here in Alabama, we don’t need an economist to tell us gas prices are punishing. We feel it every time we pull up to the pump, every time we pay a little more at the grocery store, every time a small business passes along a fuel surcharge it can’t afford to eat. A UAB economist said it plainly last week: for families of limited means, gasoline is something you buy no matter the price. “They have the least bandwidth to adjust.” That’s the truth — and it’s exactly why I’m encouraging Alabama’s congressional delegation to vote YES on the biofuel reform bill coming to the House floor on May 13.
I run a veteran-owned small business in Opelika. Global K9 Protection Group operates across 31 airports in 166 cities nationwide, which means fuel and freight costs are not abstractions for me — they show up in every contract, every logistics decision, and every conversation I have with the companies we serve. When fuel prices spike, my costs spike. When diesel goes up, air cargo fees go up. I see the ripple effects up and down the supply chain every single day. So, when I tell you that a Washington loophole is making things worse, I’m not speaking as a policy expert. I’m speaking as an Alabama small business owner who lives with the consequences…