"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"
I love $4-a-gallon gas. Driving by a local station yesterday I saw that it had gone down to $3.85 and I was bummed.
According to recent reports expensive fill-ups have curbed Americans’ insatiable desire for feeding their big gas-guzzling cars. The Energy Information Administration said in its July 31 inventory report that U.S. gasoline supplies fell by 3.5 million barrels last week resulting in an expected (estimated) 400,000 barrels gas supplies increase.
It doesn’t stop there, that same report found U.S. demand for energy is falling across most sectors. For instance the inventories of heating oil and diesel rose by 2.4 million barrels, more than the 1.8 million barrels expected, according to the EIA report.
Have you heard that researchers with the National Safety Council recently reported a 9 percent drop in motor vehicle deaths overall through May 2008 compared with the first five months of 2007? That was just overall; they clocked a drop of 18 percent in March and 14 percent in April, harkening back to rates last seen during the Arab oil embargo in 1974. We all know correlation doesn’t guarantee causation but let’s not kid ourselves, people are driving less – you put two and two together.
Other unintended consequences: higher production costs to farm the food are adding to the global food insecurity problem. It’s gotten so bad in Bolivia that in an unprecedented move, cocaine farmers are actually choosing to cut back on planting coca, and choosing to cultivate rice instead.
Also spotted: slimmer, healthier people. According to the Federal Highway Administration, since November 2007, Americans have driven 40.5 billion fewer miles, compared to the same period a year earlier. We logged 9.6 billion fewer miles in May than in May 2007. And the bicycle stores are feelin’ it; reports from all over the country are saying they can’t keep bikes in stock. I recently ran into an acquaintance I hadn’t seen in over a year. I said "Wow, you look thin – lost some weight?" He replied, "Yeah, I’ve been riding my bike everywhere."
Four-dollar-a-gallon gas is great! I didn’t say it’s not horribly painful to pay for, and I’m not happy prices are crippling people making minimum wage rather than just inconveniencing the affluent, but there’s no denying that high gas prices are destroying demand and people and car manufacturers, who are bustin’ hump to manufacture more energy efficient cars are making changes for the better.
Sadly, superstar investment bank Goldman Sachs speculated that weakness in U.S. energy demand is "transient rather than permanent," because the fundamentals of falling oil production and rising world energy consumption remain intact.
We’re on the verge of probably the greatest innovations in pursuit of scalable solar, wind, sugar and other renewable power sources ever even as politicians who are financed by the just-bought-a-new-Hummer crowd are instead looking to lift the 26-year-old moratorium on offshore drilling so we can comfortably use more U.S., rather than foreign, oil.
Regardless of whatever schemes emerge to feed our need for gas-guzzling speed, we’ve already turned a corner – I don’t think anyone not wearing bellbottoms was seriously worried about the environment back in the seventies – and energy conservation won’t fall off the radar. And – drilling or not – we’re never going to see buck-a-gallon gas again.
Ride the storm out: that $4 dollar a gallon pain in the pump is more blessing than curse.
Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com
Comments