Remember When...
Sometimes it is still hard to believe for some.
This weekend I was doing a little spring cleaning, and I finally decided to toss a bunch of old gas station bills and receipts. Those who know me well know that I can be a bit of a pack rat when it comes to throwing away receipts. Well, I hadn't tossed a single one of these gas receipts since 1988, thinking that one day I might enter the data into a spreadsheet (back then I would have used VisiCalc!) so as to produce an interesting chart.
Well, it was an interesting idea, but fortunately I've had better things to do, and never got around to it. Nevertheless I did scan a couple of the receipts in because I thought it would be fun to see what I was paying for gas back then.
Feb 27, 1989: Regular Unleaded (87 Octane) = $0.969
April 30, 1998: Special Unleaded (89 Octane) = $1.189
From the mid 80's, through the new millennium, gas prices barely budged. The two receipts above, although nine years apart, show only a modest increase. However, since 2002 during the run up to Bush's war in Iraq, prices have doubled, and almost tripled. These days the savvy consumer can benefit from identifying which gas stations have the lowest prices, as such a site as GasBuddy.com help you to do. On my daily commute I see prices differ by as much as 20 to 30 cents depending on the station. Invariably, ARCO has the cheapest gas in this area.
While I take note of all these things I, like so many, am a creature of habit, not always logical - as much as I consider myself a person who does much based on logic. For example, I will drive by the cheaper ARCO station and fill up a few blocks away at a more expensive Chevron station. Why? Well I have a Chevron card, and I haven't bothered to get an ARCO card, and I like putting gas purchases on a gas card rather than my credit card. No good reason, I just do. I'm also still putting premium gas into my car. That's what the spec suggests, and despite the fact that you can read everywhere that premium gas isn't necessary, I still buy it, paying 20 cents a gallon more for it.
The point I'm getting at is that I have not altered my habits, as costly as they are, and that means I'm not feeling the bite of the higher prices yet. I don't drive as much, but I'm not sure that is not just a matter of circumstance, rather than a concerted effort to conserve fuel.
I've always felt that as a nation we've been on a free ride. The price of gas in America has been vastly cheaper than overseas. In Europe gas taxes are considerable. The Dutch are paying over $7 per gallon, with 66% of that in taxes. The Brits pay 75% in tax on their "petrol". That's $4 of tax for a $6 gallon of gas. By comparison, we pay only about 15% tax on the overall price.
Back when Ross Perot was running for President, part of his platform included a $1 gas tax, which was a big reason I voted for him - twice. At the time that would have been a considerable tax, even if it were far less than what European nations were enforcing, but when you consider how much gas we consume as a nation in a year (133 billion gallons), that's a lot of tax dollars that could have been captured.
Yes, yes, I know, you're probably thinking I'm just a bleeding heart, tax and spend liberal. Whatever. The fact of the matter is that pretty soon we will be paying European gas prices and very little of that money will be going into financing programs that could benefit society, and instead it will be going into padding the already stuffed pockets of Big Oil executives. Any chances that we could have encouraged the development of cheaper fuel alternatives, or more fuel efficient cars, while at the same time funding better transportation alternatives, education, you name it, on gas tax dollars is literally a pipe dream these days. Quite the opposite is happening, Frist and his friends are proposing a typically idiotic tax giveaway of $100, and yes, Democratic suggestions for a larger rebate are just as idiotic.
These are just band-aid responses to an issue that we cannot wish will just go away.
On Friday I watched "The End of Suburbia" on DVD. It was a sobering look at a way of life, driven by cheap oil, that we've come to take for granted, but which is destined to end within my lifetime. The issue of Peak Oil is one that governments have to take seriously. We ignore it at our own peril. Even if you dismiss the Doomsday scenarios it is clear that our reliance on oil for so many of the products we buy and use, not just the gas for our cars, means that we will be seriously hurting when the price for all these becomes too high because the resource is scarce in face of the demand. What alternatives will we develop? What compromises to out lifestyles will we be willing to make - or have to make, whether we like to or not?
President Bush is pushing a hydrogen car solution. This is such a joke, but it isn't a funny one. Simply put, it will take more energy to produce the necessary hydrogen, than that hydrogen will ever produce in energy. Hydrogen is a net loss energy solution. Bio-fuels are no better. We simply wouldn't have enough land to grow the crops needed, and finite water issues alone would cause other problems that our oil-bitten nation just isn't prepared to talk about. A good discussion about why a sugarcane fuel might work in Brazil, but not in the U.S. can be found here.
None of these are easy problems to solve. For the modern world that is beholden to a lifestyle based on oil there will be withdrawal pains like we've not seen in many a year. We need to do the things that we can, be it driving a Smart Car, riding mass transit, taking less trips or buying fewer products. As Thomas Friedman likes to write (and I guessing he will do so in detail in an upcoming book), Green is the New Red, White and Blue. We need to make environmentally sound choices, and we will find that so many of them will have huge economic benefits. As a nation we need to become a leader in the "green" market place. If we don't do it we know China will, out of pure necessity. We cannot afford to take a back seat in the innovations and fortunes to be found in this scientific race for a solution to our present and future energy needs. If we fall behind, we will surely be thinking many years from now, "Remember when..." regretfully all over again.
Cross-posted at World View.
Posted at 5/01/2006 11:00:00 PM PT
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6 Comment(s):
Young'uns...
How can you be nostalgic for such high gas prices? :-)
I distinctly remember filling the tank on my first car (a truly horrible 1972 Chevy Vega) for less than $3.00. You could do that when (leaded) gas went for $0.289 per gallon.
Of course gas is still far cheaper than most of the other liquids consumers regularly buy. Go figure.
Many say we will see $3.50/gal this summer. If you factor in Iran, who knows how high it could go. Everyone knows America MUST get off the oil. After September 11, 2001 I expected our President to call on Americans to GET OFF THE OIL. I was expecting a speech like the one JFK gave that motivated us to reach for the moon. As you know, this never happened. Eventually I realized that the only way this is going to happen is for us to do it ourselves. To that end I created this idea and have been trying to make it a reality..
The EPA is offering a research grant opportunity that I believe is a perfect fit for this idea. I have sent an e-mail to a hand picked list of university professors who have experience with government research projects. I’m looking to form a research team to apply for the EPA grant, conduct a social-economic experiment and surveys to determine to what extent the American public will support it, project the economic potential of WPH, and identify logistical, social and political obstacles as well as opportunities.
All government grants are awarded based on merit of the proposed research. I believe WPH has merit but your help is needed to verify it. You can help by posting your feedback. Let the professors and the EPA know what you think about WPH. Do you think this idea is worth pursuing? We need to know if Americans will support a plan like this.
Do you have any ideas to improve the plan?
Share any and all of your thoughts.
Tell your friends and family about this Blog post and ask them to post their thoughts on WPH
http://wepayhalf.org
Thank you
Craig
This is a great post, Dan. Like a camera zooming out to the big picture -- but with lots of unexpected details. I too remember paying much less the late 1980s -- and I remember Ross Perot's prophecies about NAFTA and "the giant sucking sound from the south" that would ensue.
I appreciate your comments on habit too. We focus on ideology but might do much better looking at things from a behavioural standpoint. Changing habits in order to meet the challenges of peak oil via ideology and dire warnings is likely to create resistance. Setting up systemic ways to make good behavior easy and 'inevitable' seems more effective. Like the way recycling's been introduced -- including the recent electronics recycling law that streamlines the process for consumers.
Yes, habits and changing them - not easy for people to deal with. Something in the brain has to be re-programmed to accept and act on the new information and break from an old way of doing something.
The young generation will always evolve quicker and with less shock.
Hello from World View,
I have an example of changing your habits to save energy. My wife and I are currently renting a house. When we tried to use our dishwasher, we found out that we had to roll the thing over to the kitchen sink and hook it up to the faucet. That was such a pain that we simply started washing our dishes by hand. Now we do it as a matter of course and it isn't even an inconvenience. That's a little energy saved and even some more calories burned!
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