The days of cheap gasoline are gone and they are never coming back.
There. I said it. I wasn’t the first and I won’t be the last.
The truth is that oil is a finite resource. In the past century, humans have already used up a majority of the world’s oil and it is never coming back. Indeed, America has only about 2-3% of the world’s oil reserves and we consume a quarter of all the oil on the planet. Yet, many if not most Americans have swallowed whole the fantasy that we have our very own Saudi Arabian desert off the coast of Florida or in the northern slopes of Alaska that is just waiting to be tapped. It’s a lie.
But our leaders from both parties- especially the Republicans- seem to be under the illusion that they can do something about the price of gas. They can’t. Nobody can. The implication is that if we only drill more, we will have $2 gasoline by next Thursday. It won’t happen. The earliest any new oil drilling could take place is about ten years from now, and by then, the market will have adjusted the price and we would save absolutely nothing when it comes to gas prices. But rest assured, we will have added considerably to the environmental woes which we are already inflicting on the only planet we have for future generations.
This oil-drilling fairy tale was epitomized last month in a taxpayer funded mailer sent out by Randy Kuhl in which he offered his plan for lower gas prices. But once you add up all of the maximum “savings,” the price of a gallon of gas comes out to about negative $1.10. In the words of a famous New Zealand politician, this is all a bunch of “puffery and bovine scatology.”
We need both of our presidential candidates to actually address the reality of the gas prices debate. We need them to say what they know but won’t admit to the American public: $4/gallon gasoline is just the beginning. Things are only going to get tougher from here on out. That should be the context of the debate, rather than what we think we can do to make this crap called oil any cheaper.
Our oilman of a president told us years ago what has become painfully obvious: “America is addicted to oil.” And you know something has gone terribly wrong when the pusher is telling the addict that they’re taking too much.
We, as Americans and indeed as human beings, need to confront this reality head-on. We don’t need more temporary or non-solution solutions.
What we need- and have needed for decades- is an Apollo project to get America off of oil. Hell, if the Brazilians could do it, why can’t the most powerful and prestigious nation in the world do it too? We need to drastically increase fuel efficiency and eventually phaseout all of the gas consuming vehicles in the next few decades. And while we’re doing that, let’s invest billions of dollars in renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and efficient and environmentally-friendly biofuels. It will have to happen: the oil is running out. The question isn’t if, but when.
As I said in the title, this debate would be funny if it weren’t so pitiful. I am sick of it, and I don’t think I’m the only one. Let’s demand that the media and our political leaders actually focus on real longterm solutions, not just more of the same short term ideas like more drilling, which will hurt this nation in the long run.
