| What can I do about high energy prices? |
Friends,
I'm sure most of you have seen the e-message circulating recently about how to combat high gasoline prices by boycotting Exxon/Mobil gas stations. Now, I grew up involved in the fuel distribution industry, and I can tell you from first hand knowledge that this boycott idea will be completely ineffective. Here's why.
First of all, Exxon/Mobil produces many other products besides gasoline. Heating oils, diesel fuel, aviation fuel, lubricating oils, grease, fertilizer and raw materials for the plastics industry are just a few of the biggies. Gasoline is a small segment of their business. Further, all of the big oil companies share the national pipelines (much like we all share the internet) and they cross supply each others' distributors all the time.
If you stop buying gasoline from Exxon/Mobil stations and the volume to those stations goes down, Exxon/Mobil will simply wholesale their excess gasoline production to other distributors, who will buy every gallon. The company owned stations will survive and the independent retailers (who are typically small, regional, family owned companies) will be the only ones hurt. So, who you choose to buy your gasoline from affects only the local station operators.
There is only one possible effective strategy to combat high fuel prices.
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Many people who feel they have a "right" to as much fuel as they want won't like this, but to them: "Get it through your thick heads that the supply of petroleum products is limited, and we in the USA are dangerously dependent on foreign sources for too much of it."
Nobody in the Federal Government - Republicans or Democrats - can or will do anything about the prices. They've been bullying other countries around for years in order to get them to sell us crude oil cheap (along with many other consumer products, for that matter). They have no more leverage to use. Besides, they are in "cahoots" with the oil exporting countries, and again this is a non-partisan issue. The oil exporting countries have been buying billions in military hardware, paid for with the oil money. You will get no sympathy or relief from the "fat cats" who control both big parties and are rolling in the money.
Back on the ground here, we have not built any new refineries in many years, and the ones we have are running near 100% capacity 24/7, so regardless of how much crude oil we have, our ability to turn it into gasoline is limited. This is an Economics 101 situation of supply and demand. We are demanding more product than industry can supply.
There is only one option:
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This means you. Use that God given brain of yours and figure out how to make do with less. Carpool more; use public transportation more; buy a more fuel efficient car (made in the USA preferably); walk or bicycle when you can; take fewer driving trips or vacations. Do anything, but don't just sit there and do nothing or expect someone else to handle the situation for you.
Do it, not just for today, or this year, but because in the long run we must evolve out of the petroleum economy. Yes, there is a lot of crude oil, coal and natural gas, and we can use it in reasonable quantities; but there is not an infinite supply which we can keep tapping forever. There are also the consequences of years of burning so much fossil fuel and dumping massive quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. For one, the greenhouse gas global warming effect is real.
Although there is much controversy and disagreement about how dangerous the long term consequences are, I can assure you that the combined effects of long term carbon dioxide infusion and industrial pollution will in time result in severe problems. It is not a matter of whether there will be problems, it is a matter of how severe and how soon.
This of course leads into our total energy situation. Unless you're stupid, you already know that next winter we will again be "gouged" by high heating fuel prices. If electricity rates were not so tightly regulated, we would be getting "gouged" with our electric bills as summer demand grows to run air conditioners. Look at California with their rolling blackouts in May, although it's their own fault for doubling demand in one decade without building any new generating plants.
Again, we have only one practical option: CONSERVE
Learn to live a little warmer in summer; our species survived for thousands of years without air conditioning, you'll survive using less A/C. Use those new compact fluorescent bulbs wherever you can (they don't dim, but they use 1/3 or less electricity then regular bulbs, and they last 10 times as long). Pressure your city or township to install or migrate to more efficient street lighting. Start now to improve your home's insulation in preparation for next winter, and use the sun whenever you can - its warmth is free.
Use that brain of yours to be more aware of the energy you use, to avoid wasting any of it, and to think of ways to use less. No one person will come up with the one magic solution to the energy problem; it will take the combined efforts of everyone.
That means you must revive the concept of personal responsibility which
is almost lost in the "government will take care of me" culture of today.
Government will not solve this problem, it is entirely up to us.