| | So today I saw gas below $3 / gallon for the first time in months. There's definitely the inclination to feel happy about this but I'm trying to resist that urge. Cheaper gas feels like a good thing. It means I'm spending less money to get to work, less money to get to school, etc. It means a slight rise in my disposable income. I should be happy about that and I am a little. But here's why I'm disappointed.
High gas prices have accomplished more in the last few months to further the causes of alternative fuels, energy independence and reducing CO2 emissions than 10 years of legislation could. Government is inefficient and wasteful. Economic pressures are always faster and more effective. When gas is cheap people may pay lip service to the idea that we need to conserve, investigate alternative technologies, use public transit, bike commute, etc. But if gas is cheap then there is really no incentive to actually do it. Conserving gas is a pain, the cost of entry for hybrid vehicles is still higher than competitive cars, mass transit sorta sucks to use and bike commuting is looked at as being a little weird. If it doesn't hurt to not conserve, then why bother?
But look at what a couple Summers of high gas prices have brought us. Demand for gas dropped during the Summer for the first time in years. Detroit has historically fought all attempts to raise efficiency requirements, but now GM of all companies is bringing out a plugin hybrid electric vehicle. Hummer sales decline over 30% in one month alone. People are moving to smaller vehicles, hybrids and even diesels. If high gas prices continue the progress can only continue. High gas prices encourage development of alternative fuels because it means you don't have to make your process as cheap to still make a profit. High gas prices encourage the development of better mass transit and infrastructure for bike commuters.
I worry that if gas prices drop people will begin to think that this was just a fluke. I really don't believe this was a fluke. Gas prices long term are going to go up. Worldwide there is rising demand for gas, and eventually we will run out. When you have rising demand and a scarce resource prices will rise. I worry that this short term drop will begin to undo the small gains we've made. The longer we wait to transition away from gasoline the worse it will be when prices really do skyrocket. If alternative fuel companies fail in the short term because of temporarily low gas prices then we will be hurt in the long run. If we don't improve our infrastructure now we will have to scramble and do it badly when things really get bad.
This Summer was a taste, I hope we take it as a lesson and really make real efforts to move away from gasoline.
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| | Posted 10/14/2008 12:54 PM - 35 Views - 2 eProps - 1 Comment
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