May 29, 2008
Cost and effect
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When you see a massive SUV rolling down — or idling in traffic on — Elm Street, what do you think?
It is likely some variation of being thankful for not being responsible for its gas bill: “How can he afford to keep filling that up?”
But do you think he would have bought that gas-guzzling vehicle if he knew gas would be costing more than $4 per gallon?
As gas continues to move further from the $4 per gallon charge toward $5 a gallon here in southern Fairfield County, we can wring our hands and complain about it or we can ask our leaders to do something: Keep the gas costs up and work harder for us not to be dependent on oil, particularly foreign oil.
In Wednesday’s New York Times, columnist Thomas L. Friedman asks readers to imagine “that someone running for president was able to actually tell the truth, the real truth ... about what would be the best ... energy policy for the long-term economic health and security of our country.”
While Mr. Friedman concedes that such a thought is a fantasy, he says the mythical candidate would explain “there is no short-term fix for gasoline prices.” Growing countries all over the world along with America are demanding more and more oil, he notes. And as we continue to not have an energy policy, we continue to put off fixing this problem.
Mr. Friedman calls the Clinton-McCain proposal of a summer gas tax cynical. And the Chrystler-Dodge-Jeep offer to subsidize gas for three years, he says, is reckless.
Cheap gas encourages us to use more gas. As we use more gas, it becomes more expensive. As it becomes more expensive, oil-rich states (some of whom are our enemies) become richer, as was pointed out by Tim Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics, in a weekend Op-Ed in The Washington Post.
Expensive gas encourages us to conserve. As studies have shown this year, more people are using mass transit, like Metro-North, to commute. People are also buying more gas-efficient cars and there are waiting lists for hybrid vehicles.
Mr. Friedman makes a good argument to create a gas cost “floor” of $4 per gallon. So even if the price of gas goes down, a federal tax will continue to keep it at no less than $4. In doing this, he writes, “the message going forward to every car buyer and car maker would be this: The price of gasoline is never going back down. Therefore, if you buy a big gas guzzler today, you are locking yourself into perpetually high gasoline bills. You are buying a pig that will eat you out of house and home. At the same time, if you, a manufacturer, continue building fleets of non-hybrid gas guzzlers, you are condemning yourself, your employees and shareholders to oblivion.”
Ideas like this are easy to put off because they might be unpopular with the masses. Who wants to pay $4 per gallon? No one. But an idea like this, in the long run, would do a lot for our energy economy and a lot for our nation. And we don’t elect presidents, congressmen, state senators or representatives to make the easy decisions.
So do any of our local politicians have the courage to look to the future and tell us the truth?
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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