A Wind-Powered Ship with a Fuel Surcharge?

This fuel surcharge thing is out of hand. How do we know? Even Star Clippers, which operates three sailing ships powered by the wind, plans to add one to customer bills to compensate for the soaring cost of oil.

See the problem here? The ships are powered by the wind -- not oil! And last we looked, wind was still free.

The Star Clippers fuel charge, which kicks in Dec. 17, will be $8 per person per day -- $3 per day higher than lines such as Carnival and Royal Caribbean that do use oil to propel their ships. Hmmmm.

In Star Clippers' defense, their ships use fossil fuels to power the generators that keep the lights on at night. And sometimes when the wind goes slack the ships fire up gas engines to keep on schedule. But c'mon, now, an $8 per person fuel surcharge for that?

Meanwhile, oil prices have plunged over the past week. They're down to under $88 a barrel from nearly $100 a barrel when major lines began adding fuel surcharges last month. So far, though, no line has reduced their fee.