Wednesday, March 31, 2004
America's Petroleum-based drug addiction
This is an old-ish article, but the "high" price of gasoline is turning into a campaign issue. What the article points out, in passing, is that in today's dollars (that is, dollars adjusted for inflation), we were paying $2.90 for a gallon of gasoline in March, 1981. In other words, our gasoline prices are NOT high by historical standards.
That isn't to say that it doesn't FEEL high, given the popularity of huge, gas-guzzling SUVs and pickup trucks. In 1981, America was still feeling the hangover from the gas crunch of the early 70s (a function of a middle eastern embargo of western countries to "punish" us for our support of Israel in the "Yom Kippur" war of 1973). I'm guessing (and this isn't a scientific study, just random musings) that our miles per gallon average was MUCH higher than is common among the armored vehicles passing for automobiles that trundle down modern American highways. That will make the price of gasoline "feel" much higher, even if it isn't.
We NEED to wean ourself off our dependence on cheap oil. It has led to an explosion in wasteful consumption, as the ever gathering trend towards huge cars/trucks shows. It puts the lie to administration claims that it wants to reduce our dependence on unstable parts of the world for our energy needs. We can thank our lucky stars that our number one source of oil is Canada. Our second source in Saudi Arabia, a country I would suggest we DO NOT want to depend on in future.
Kerry is accused of backing an increase in the price of gas. Of course, the bills he voted for tended to be loaded with other stuff that he considered important. That's the problem with being a Senator. You have to vote on bills to which unrelated riders have been attached, leaving lots of ammunition for your opponent, who can take those votes out of context and make it look like you were voting to have old people ground up and reprocessed as soylent green.
Heck, perhaps Kerry DOES want a gasoline tax. In my book, that's a GOOD thing, just as it was a GOOD thing for McCain to vote for gasoline taxes after September 11th. America needs to control its consumption of gasoline. It's a national security issue, and it's an environmental issue.
This is an old-ish article, but the "high" price of gasoline is turning into a campaign issue. What the article points out, in passing, is that in today's dollars (that is, dollars adjusted for inflation), we were paying $2.90 for a gallon of gasoline in March, 1981. In other words, our gasoline prices are NOT high by historical standards.
That isn't to say that it doesn't FEEL high, given the popularity of huge, gas-guzzling SUVs and pickup trucks. In 1981, America was still feeling the hangover from the gas crunch of the early 70s (a function of a middle eastern embargo of western countries to "punish" us for our support of Israel in the "Yom Kippur" war of 1973). I'm guessing (and this isn't a scientific study, just random musings) that our miles per gallon average was MUCH higher than is common among the armored vehicles passing for automobiles that trundle down modern American highways. That will make the price of gasoline "feel" much higher, even if it isn't.
We NEED to wean ourself off our dependence on cheap oil. It has led to an explosion in wasteful consumption, as the ever gathering trend towards huge cars/trucks shows. It puts the lie to administration claims that it wants to reduce our dependence on unstable parts of the world for our energy needs. We can thank our lucky stars that our number one source of oil is Canada. Our second source in Saudi Arabia, a country I would suggest we DO NOT want to depend on in future.
Kerry is accused of backing an increase in the price of gas. Of course, the bills he voted for tended to be loaded with other stuff that he considered important. That's the problem with being a Senator. You have to vote on bills to which unrelated riders have been attached, leaving lots of ammunition for your opponent, who can take those votes out of context and make it look like you were voting to have old people ground up and reprocessed as soylent green.
Heck, perhaps Kerry DOES want a gasoline tax. In my book, that's a GOOD thing, just as it was a GOOD thing for McCain to vote for gasoline taxes after September 11th. America needs to control its consumption of gasoline. It's a national security issue, and it's an environmental issue.
