High priced gasoline is not the PROBLEM. High priced gasoline is the SOLUTION! The PROBLEM is that we are burning up oil as fast as the world can pump it out of the ground. In the thirty five years since OPEC made it clear that we had a serious problem, we have done nothing to solve it. We should have created high priced gas and oil through add-on taxes over the last 35 years, and we would not have this problem today.
The PROBLEM is that we are burning up oil as fast as the world can pump it out of the ground.
The PROBLEM is that it has been thirty five years since OPEC whacked us between the eyes, and told us that we were at the mercy of a bunch of evil tyrants who controlled enough of the world supply of oil that they could do anything they wanted. Thirty five years later we have done nothing to solve this problem, and we have made those evil tyrants exceedingly rich, powerful, and dangerous.
HIGH PRICED GASOLINE AND OIL IS THE ONLY GOOD THING ABOUT THE CURRENT SITUATION!
The price of gasoline and oil is finally high enough to get us to start doing what we have needed to do for thirty five years - dump the gas guzzling monster SUV and buy the most fuel efficient car we can find. Car pool to work, take public transportation, live closer to the work place, haul goods shorter distances, and convert the oil burning furnace to another fuel. We are finally getting the auto makers to get serious about designing vehicles that have better fuel efficiency or run on alternative energy sources. The price of gasoline is finally high enough to start making alternative fuels economically attractive and spur massive research and development to create the new technologies that will replace oil.
We didn't have to let it come to this. If high prices is what it takes to get us to get serious about solving the problem, we could have created high priced gasoline and oil gradually over the last thirty five years with add-on taxes, pushing the price of gasoline up to $6 or $8 or $10 a gallon, whatever it would take to force us to do the things we needed to do. It may be that a high price for a gallon of gasoline might just reflect the true cost, considering the cost of disruptions to our economy with each oil crisis, and the cost of a "War on Terror" against the rich and powerful enemies that we have created.. If high priced oil is created by add-on taxes, the extra money goes back into our own pockets, and not to the evil tyrants. Actually, paying a tax on gas and oil instead of paying a tax on something else costs us nothing! Also, the fact is, that if we made gasoline twice the cost per gallon but you drove a car that used half as much per mile, your total outlay for gasoline would be the same.
Oil prices have spiked upwards several times over the last thirty five years and then tumbled back down, and may well do so again - In the past few days, the price of a barrel of oil has fallen by $20. And each time oil prices have fallen, we have promptly forgotten all about the oil problem - until the next, and higher, spike. This time, let's implement add-on taxes and get the prices high enough to actually SOLVE THE OIL PROBLEM!
The Stalking Horse - Should We Drill in Anwar?
A "Stalking Horse" issue is an issue to divert attention from real issues, and its proponents would gladly debate it forever to avoid having to confront the real issues. The "issues" of drilling in Anwar and off the coast of American cities have little to do with the real issue of confronting our dependency on oil as a fuel.Sleeping Dogs, Politics, and Politicians - Why Government is Broken
Like the energy crises and the mortgage crises, problems can lie like Sleeping Dogs for decades before they blow up in our faces. How will we get the people we elect to run our Government to deal with those Sleeping Dogs before they become disasters?Are we Green? Do we Recycle? Will we outlast the Dinosaurs?
Can we solve the global problems of shortages of food, fuel, fresh water, the destruction of the forests and extinction of other species, and pollution of the water, the land, and the air, without solving the problem of overpopulation?