3 Reasons to Embrace our Gas Prices
By 
Shan-ul-Hai •
June 18, 2008
We all complain about high gas prices… personally, I’m tired of seeing the complaints. Here’s why:
- Prices aren’t determined by costs; they’re determined by supply and demand. Our demand for fuel is increasing (case in point: India/China) and the supply is decreasing. My only complaint is that the government wasn’t able to foster a gradual increase (rather than a sudden one, which was a major contributing factor to the recession)… the reason for this is because they were doing everything possible to avoid the inevitable increase, so when they ran out of resources, the prices catapulted to their rightful place.
- Prices still haven’t increased to the point where we significantly reduce consumption. As long as demand doesn’t decrease, the prices will continue to increase… the only thing that can stabilize the prices is if we stop using as much gas. At that point, the supply and demand curves are intersecting and we’re at the perfect price.
- Until prices get high enough so that we can’t get by anymore, we’ll never devote adequate resources to alternative energy. Last year, the government spent $200 million on solar power research, about $300 million on nuclear energy and on “other fossil fuels”, and about $400 million on coal. By contrast, we spent $102 billion (about 100 times as much) on the Iraq War. Also, we spend $1.6 billion every day on gasoline (almost $600 billion per year)… that means that we spend more money PER DAY on gas than we do PER YEAR on alternative energy.
As long as we’re spending 500 times as much on gas as we do on alternative energies, how do we expect to really fix our problems? Instead of reducing our gas taxes (like Hillary and McCain were suggesting), I think we should add a little bit of a tax and use it to pay for novel research. In the long run, it will save us money… even if we only increase prices by 1% (about 4 cents per gallon right now, which seems pretty inconsequential with the way that prices have been inflating), that’s enough to multiply our alternative energy research by a factor of 5.
But it seems like we’re stupid enough to demand lower gas prices, even though we know that it will hurt us in the long run. I say that we add a 2% tax to all gas purchases, which would amount to 8 cents a gallon, and use it to multiply alternative energy funding by 10.
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I agree with most of what was said here. However, instead of raising tax on fuel. seeing as how the government already makes more money per barrel of oil than the so called evil “big oil companies” do, and they’re obviously not doing anything worthwhile with the money that they are taxing us with already…. I don’t feel like trusting them with more money that they aren’t going to use wisley. Bigger government never solves anything…
Here’s a better solution. We have 30 years worth of oil in Anwar, and we have even more in the off shore locations on our coast lines, as well as some in Georgia, the Midwest, Colorado, and other places. We should lift the ban on off shore drilling, lift the ban on drilling in Anwar, and give us 30+ years of our own oil. Get us off the dependancy of middle east oil, and during that time, use the money that we would have been giving to middle east oil companies to develop alternative sources of energy
That way, the American people don’t pay so much for gas, the government does not go into further debt, the American people don’t have to pay any more taxes, and we are self sufficent on energy.
If anyone has concerns about the risk of environmental impact, oil spills, or whatever, all you have to do is look at the oil wells in Texas and the south east. They recently sustained hurricane Katrina without failing and without dumping tons of oil into our environment. We have the technology to extract oil without destroying the beautiful environment around it. Then when we’re done, they can remove the equiptment and return everything to the way it looked before we even started drilling.
David - If you believe there haven’t been any oil spills around Texas and the southeast recently, you’re high. So basically it sounds like you’re saying we should damage our enviroment so we can drill oil to keep the prices low, which will have the effect of Americans keeping their gas-hogging SUV’s, and nobody doing much research AT ALL on alternative energy sources until we’re REALLY screwed and all the oil’s almost completely gone. Hmmm. I don’t like your idea.
you obviously didn’t read what I said. I said we “have” the technology to drill without causing damage. Maybe there were some spills, but I was not aware of any after Katrina. Can you direct me to a news article reporting of any oil drill related disasters in the last couple years? if you can then I will aknowledge the possible danger.
However… You could say that about anything. If we drill then there is a danger of a spill and damage to the environment. It is a risk, but with the technology we have, if we use it, the risk is low.
Also, if you thought i said this…. “we should damage our enviroment so we can drill oil to keep the prices low, which will have the effect of Americans keeping their gas-hogging SUV’s, and nobody doing much research AT ALL on alternative energy sources until we’re REALLY screwed and all the oil’s almost completely gone” Then you didn’t read what I wrote…
what I said was this “during that time, use the money that we would have been giving to middle east oil companies to develop alternative sources of energy”
So… In summary. Drill our own oil, safley, securley, with little risk of environmental damage, giving us the resources, the money, and the time, to develop “ALTERNATIVE” sources of energy.
We can’t go back and change the past. If we had been smart we would have started researching alternative sources of energy back in the 70’s, or sooner. But we didn’t. Since we didn’t, and now we find ouselves in a situation we can’t just snap our fingers and all of a sudden have all these alternative sources of energy. It’s going to take time and money. So… while we spend the time and money to develop it. Why not use our own oil, our own energy, and be self sufficent. Then when we have the better technology it will have been something that we discovered and the world will depend on us. Instead of the world depending on the Middle East.
Im not sure there is really “little” risk to environmental damage. I think that the risk is quite high, but maybe less so than in the past. Drilling for more oil would only decrease high prices by a very small amount and in a long time from now. There is no quick fix solution. We have to buckle down and accept the situation we have made for ourselves.
I read what you said, but if you think that alternative energy won’t be pushed to the back burner while gas is cheap, you’re mistaken. In today’s world, people and government only worry about the NOW.
I would post a link showing all the spills in recent history, including the past 5 years, it’s on The Car Lounge somewhere, I just can’t find it right now lol. I’ll post it as soon as I find it.
then “WE” the people need to make it happen. I totally agree that if we don’t make something happen then nothing will happen. However, it can’t happen right this instant, and since it can’t happen right this instant we need to figure out how to become self sufficent and not depend on terrorist affiliated middle eastern countries for our energy.
It’s unfourtunate that we live in a world that needs crude oil to survive. But we do, and until we change that we’ll need more. That is just a sad fact that can’t be changed right away.
“WE” the people need a push. Something that will encourage us as a whole to push for alternative energies. $7.00 a gallon gasoline will work nicely in doing that.
Okay, so while “WE” the people push for that to happen….. What do we do in the mean time? Keep using middle east oil? keep supporting terrorism? pay 7, 8, 9, dollars a gallon? Then on top of that, have to pay some other tax or something to help support the research of alternative fuel. Or….. Drill SOME of our own oil, as safely and securely as possible, save everyone money, save the government money, and have more money to spend on researching alternative fuel?
I don’t see how it doesn’t make sense.
There is only one negative side effect. That is the possibility of some kind of disaster and damage to the environment. However…. WE HAVE the technology to do it safely. WE CAN use that technology and then the risk of damage is low.
It’s a good idea in theory but the reality is: 1. Despite you saying we’ll drill “safely and securely”, that’s not the reality. There will be oil spills that will damage the enviroment that will far outweigh any TEMPORARY price decrease we get for drilling our oil. 2. We get a LOT of oil from Canada. To say we’re “supporting terrorists” with our oil purchasing is a bit of a strech.
How about instead of a temporary fix (which is all drilling around our coasts would be) we actually put some REAL money into alternative energy? The sooner we start taking the concept seriously (as opposed to the dicking around we’re doing now) the better off we’ll be.
Well first of all, I refuse to believe that EVERY SINGLE TIME THAT ANYONE HAS EVER DRILLED FOR OIL IN THE HISTORY OF OIL…. that there has always been oil spills without question, every time.
What you’re saying makes it sound that there is no possible way of drilling safely. When in fact that there is a safe way to do it, and we can do it. Sure there’s a risk. The only way to assure 100% that there is no risk is to never drill.
And I’m aware that we get some oil from Canada. As we also get some oil from the US as well. However… we do get a lot of oil from the middle east, and from terrorist affiliated countries. Even if it was only a little bit, I still think we sould stop purchasing from them.
I understand that it’s a “temporary fix” and I fully meant for it to be that way. But, take the 30+ years supply of oil that we have available to us in our own country, during that time develop the better technology.
No one still has answered my question. Why pay higher prices, why support middle east countries, and then pay higher prices or more taxes even still to develop the technology? why not lower our prices, make ourselves independent, and develop the technology all at the same time?
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I’m converting my car to LPG (Propane.) Looks like the demand curve caused me to find a new supply of fuel.
Actually, it’s not just the prices. Here in the Philippines, almost all vehicles that run on gas or diesel spew nasty black clouds of smoke, including the one I just bought. Kids have chronic dry cough and no one seems to notice.
I’ve reduced the emissions some, but to really get rid of them I need to get off gas.
Every time I drive by a kid on the street, it compels me to make the switch.