On the Energy Crisis...

The media would like us to believe that the current price of a gallon of gasoline, around $4.00 here, is the result of an increasing global demand and, in particular, due to the booming economies of India and China. Yet the price of a gallon of gas has risen $1.09 in the past year (according to a report today on CNN). If that is true then the cost of gasonline has risen by 35% in one year (from approx $2.95/gal to approx $4.00/gal).

Raise your hand if you think gasoline consumption has risen by 35% globally, or even just in India and China alone, during the past 12 months. (If you raised your hand, congratulations - U R N Idiot!)

A couple of thoughts come to mind:

1. The speculators are the reason for the skyrocketing cost of gasonline. THAT is where our government needs to take immediate action if we are to see immediate relief.

2. As an environmentalist (I was one of the first individuals in North America to become a certified (by the Ecological Society of America) Ecologist years ago), I appreciate and wish to preserve our natural resources as much as possible within the realm of reality. And reality is that our society is based upon petro products. Therefore we need to tap our national reserves of oil - on our land and on our shores - in an enviornmentally-sensitive manner. The current hands-off our national natural resources is beyond assinine and must change immediately.

3. We must convert our society from a petro-based society to one which uses biofuels, and in particular, ethanol from sugar. And what better way to do this than to do what we did during World War II: let our military lead the way by converting, within 5 years, absolutely every piece of military hardware that uses petro-fuels to bio-fuels. Think about that for a moment: if the military alone, or the entire federal government on the whole, were to convert their fleet of vehicles to bio-fuels within 5 years, we'd see commercial vehicles making the conversion in approximately the same time frame. Let bio-fuels become the next Jeep or Humvee. Not only would the federal program spur the rest of the economy to a bio-fuels-based economy, it would simultaneously result in a military which is totally and absolutely free from the potential of any and all oil shortages.

4. My current SUV gets an average of 15 mpg. (Before I continue, let me state up-front: I use an SUV because it is the only vehicle which I can readily get in and out of given my current medical situation.) Let's say I were to trade that vehicle for a new hybrid SUV that gets 30 mpg. I drive approximately 12000 miles/year. My current vehicle uses 800 gallons at $4.00/gal and thus costs me $3200/year. If that new vehicle doubles my gas mileage, my costs would be cut in half to $1600/year. That new vehicle would cost me $35000 and so the break-even point will be in approximately 22 years, and that doesn't take into consideration the loss of income (interest) I could glean on that $35000 for 22 years nor the additional cost as a result in the increase in my auto insurance premium for having a new vehicle. OK Jack Cafferty, now you know why I'm not running out to purchase a new vehicle. Oh, don't get me wrong - I would absolutely love to get a new vehicle that would double my mileage, but it's cost prohibitive for me now.

5. The energy crisis is more of a threat to the American Homeland that any terrorist organization, bar none.