An Aid To Memory

Today, I was getting some change out to pay for some things at school, since the DMV drained all my cash ($24.00 for a driver’s license renewal!! It was $11.00 three years ago…why are we electing Republicans if they are going to raise taxes and fees???). At any rate, as I was getting out change I remembered back in 1998 when I was in college, and my dad would give Jonathan and I gas money every so often, and would say “keep the change to eat out on.” We would actually have money left over to spend at local restaurants. That was when gas was 99 cents/gallon. Now, at $3.19, we have no money left over, and that extra $32.85 (2.19 x 15 gallons) per fill up is going to pay super-rich oil execs, oppressive communist leaders, terrorists, and so forth, and NOT our local American business owners. Now if it is costing me 32.85 more per fill up than in 1998, multiply that number times the number of people in the U.S. and you can see how little money is going into the local economy and how much is going into the pockets of a few. Oh…and I am still waiting for the Democrats to do something about high gas prices. Could it be that even the Democrats and celebrities harping about energy issues are themselves unwilling to change their lifestyles significantly, and cannot even fathom life without their private jets or mansions with exorbitant electric bills (think Al Gore). Well at least they are harping I guess, since you can’t seem to convince most Americans that funding the governments of Iran and Venezuela with our oil addiction is a problem.

Opec is going to trim their output informally, and the result has been an additional $1.40 tacked onto the price of oil just this morning. I believe OPEC has the right to do whatever it wants, but let me offer a perspective on this.

America is still addicted to oil. So gas is nearing $2.00 again. So what? We are still addicted to oil. The leader of one of our major oil suppliers came into our country, put down our leadership, acted like a complete idiot, and we are still paying his way into power. I for one am sick of it. I don’t care if gas is 99 cents a gallon again, we need to start focusing on alternatives. If I had a flex-fuel car (which I don’t now, but will definitely consider in the future), and a station with E85 nearby, I would use it. I would pay extra to put ethanol into my tank. However, the oil companies have been going slow on installing E85 pumps. I wonder why?

Folks, 2.12 gas is not cheap. Funding near-totalitarian regimes is not good. I think we all need to not be blinded by “cheap” gas. We still have a problem, and it still needs fixed. Americans have short memories for things like this.

Gasoline prices are falling, and the situation seems rather bearish, meaning the market favors lower prices. I am glad. Gas prices have eating into my budget and I don’t even drive that much! Let’s hope Americans don’t forget how high prices have been, and keep making an effort to conserve and explore alternatives. After all, we are happy now with the “low” price of $2.39. I remember last summer when gas was pushing $2.29 I thought the price was way too high and couldn’t believe it had risen that far.

Alas, we Americans have short memories!

“Get off the road grandpa!” That’s what I used to yell (or at least think) when a car in front of me accelerated slowly or didn’t eventually reach 10 miles per hour over the speed limit. I mean…please! I had to drive like a maniac; I had important things to get home to do like watching TV or getting a snack.

These days I drive like grandpa, and we have $3.00/gallon gas to thank for it. I have more time than money now, so getting some place 5 minutes later is much better for me than continually lining the pockets of Iran and Venezuela.

So why did I decide to become a grandpa? I did so after reading a report on Edmunds.com that showed that accelerating slowly (0-60 in 20 seconds) and coasting into stops (as opposed to braking right before a stop) actually increase your gas mileage by an average of 31%. Yes…I said an average of 31%, not up to 31% (the study found up to 37% actually)! This means that if your car averages 25 miles per gallon, simply by taking off more slowly and easing into stops you could be getting 32.75 mpg. If your car averages 30 mpg, then this technique could bring you up to 39.3 mpg. “Wait,” you may ask, “this is nearing hybrid level gas mileage, isn’t it?” To quote Michelle Tanner on Full House, “you got it dude!” Edmunds found the same thing: driving with a little more reserve takes your average car and makes it perform more like a hybrid. So basically, we could darn-near end the current gas crisis if we would just drive like grandma and grandpa.

Now you may be getting a little nervous. This will clearly not make you the most popular driver on the road. I drive this way (and at the speed limit) to work every morning on a state route. Yes, I get passed sometimes. Yes, I am sure I make some drivers mad. Do I care? Not at all. Not only am I saving myself money, but I am saving oil, oil that funds hostile nations. As such I am proud to drive like a grandpa, although I still haven’t gotten the knack of leaving my turn signal on for miles.

Other tips to save gas?

-Turn off your car when idling (up to 19% savings)

-Drive the Speed Limit (12% average savings)

-Keep tires correctly inflated (minor savings)

-Use Cruise Control on flat drives (7% average savings)

I found this article, Going a Short Way to Make a Point, very fascinating. It details the gas mileage of the vehicles that members of Congress took to an event at a gas station, where many of them complained about high gas prices. The amazing thing is that most of these Congressmen and women could have easily walked to this event instead of wasting fuel. The ones who did drive, drove horribly ineffecient vehicles. Take a look at this quote from the article:

“Since George Bush and Dick Cheney took over as president and vice president, gas prices have doubled!” charged Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), standing at an Exxon station on Capitol Hill where regular unleaded hit $3.10. “They are too cozy with the oil industry.”

She then hopped in a waiting Chrysler LHS (18 mpg) — even though her Senate office was only a block away.

Barbara…the fight against oil addiction begins with you! Republicans were just as bad though. Overall democrats’ vehicle got 23mpg while Republican cars got 18mpg, both horrible figures. However despite Republicans being on average behind the Democrats on this one, a Republican had the car with the best gas mileage of the lot. Richard Luger drove his 60 mpg hybrid.

I have complained before and will again here. Americans are spoiled brats when it comes to energy and blame everybody for high prices but themselves. Apparently Congress is the same way.

Can we partially blame the government? Yes. Can we partially blame oil companies? Yes. Can we partially blame OPEC? Yes. However, if we Americans would cut our consumption by even 5%, we would see gas prices nearly collapse overnight. So far, we don’t seem to be willing to make that sacrifice, so instead we get a public that complains more loudly and a government that heaps on the band-aids, while we really do little about the problem.

We Americans are crazy when it comes to energy. I am currently paying $2.65 a gallon for gas, and we are only beginning to enter the peak driving season. I bet that we’ll be seeing $2.99/gallon gasoline soon. And you know what? Americans will be complaining about it, but in typical American fashion, we will be blaming everybody but ourselves for it.

Why are gas prices so high? Well, there are a variety of reasons, but the main reason is supply and demand. The US, China, and India are gobbling up gasoline, and the demand is only expected to grow. OPEC is actually trying to lower prices, and doesn’t seem to have the spare capacity to do so! Also, we need more refineries in the United States, and on account of environmental red-tape and oil companies that like tight supplies (which yield higher prices), our “newest” refinery is over 20 years old. The third issue raising prices is geopolitics. The areas that have the most oil are often unstable, and the average person in many of these countries loathes the oil-consuming West. I estimate that the price of gasoline would be around fifty cents a gallon lower if Iran wasn’t so hostile to us, Iraq wasn’t such a mess, and militants in Nigeria weren’t threatening oil companies so much.

While we could have a more positive effect on geopolitics, that is up to our leaders, and we know how slow and ineffective folks in Washington can be. This means we the people can do one thing at this point: conserve, which will reduce demand. Imagine if every driving American took steps to consume 2 fewer gallons of gasoline of gasoline per week. This could be accomplished by driving a more fuel efficient car, cutting out one non-essential trip per week, walking more, starting and stopping more gradually, coasting down hills and so forth. If all of us drivers did this (and all other factors stayed the same), we would add at least 20 million gallons of excess gasoline to the stockpiles each week. Over the course of 2 months, this build of 160 million gallons would be an economic bear that nobody could stop, not even the most ambitious futures traders, and prices would collapse from the current levels.

Don’t believe me? Many experts believe that if we had not had a mild winter this year, gasoline (and heating oil) would be over $3.00 a gallon right now. Nature took care of our demand problem, but had nature not have been favorable this winter, we could have seen record prices.

But alas, we Americans love our big status symbols, err, cars, and don’t like to be told what to do. Even though we are in a time of war, and oil feeds our enemies, even the most patriotic Americans proudly support the finances of the terrorists through their oil addictions.

Please join me in trying to develop some common sense about energy.

Ok…Oil is approaching $70.00 a barrel, which is what it was around the time of Hurricane Katrina. Iran is trying to use oil as leverage against possible international sanctions. Oil money is clearly funding terror, and since oil costs under ten dollars to extract and process, most countries are making over 50 dollars profit per barrel of oil. People are having trouble paying their heating bills.

Now, knowing all of this, why haven’t we seen any leadership from our president and Congress on this issue? Where are the calls for Americans to conserve energy, drive less, buy more efficient cars, and turn down the heat, since we are at war after all? Where is Congress to tell automakers increasing fuel efficiency is a national security issue? Where is the huge push for alternative fuels? What about bio-diesel? In past times, we Americans would have banded together, rolled up our sleeves, and conserved energy so that our enemies (terrorists and the states that support them) would have been choked off financially. These days we are so materialistic that we demand access to every expensive status-symbol we want, regardless of the effect on our country’s well-being. If every driving American even saved 2 gallons a week, and turned down their thermostats a few degrees (from 68 down to 66 for instance) we could make an impact. I am no radical environmentalist, but I am sick of high energy prices, and sick of our oil habit funding our enemies. Let’s get a little common sense folks…making corrupt nations and oil company executives richer does not benefit the average American. It is high time a common-sense populist movement developed around the energy issue!