No End in Sight for Gas Guzzlers

As of Tuesday, July 12, 2011

As of this writing, $3.60 per gallon was the lowest price I’ve paid for 87 octane in quite a while. The lower price satisfied my need but not my conscience. By the time I got home, I shook my head and decided to write this to all gas guzzlers.

We are starting our fifth decade of congressional and presidential failure to address a coherent energy policy for the United States, dating back to the Nixon administration and the oil embargo and gas lines of 1973.

Eight presidents and 18 congresses later, there is still no meaningful political or policy continuity on addressing our dependency on foreign fossil fuels.

Oil and gas, coal and hydro, as necessary as they are to maintaining our quality of life, are simply not politically popular.

For incumbent lawmakers, running for re-election is what our elected officials do best. What we hear from them are sound bites for green energy, clean energy and renewables. They know all too well there is insufficient clean energy electrons to put a dent in fossil fuel needs of today and possibly for the next two decades.

The sentiment is clearly anti-coal, oil and hydrocarbons. They forget coal is used to produce more than 60 percent of all electricity.

They are oblivious to the 250 million vehicles on the roads of America today that run almost entirely on gas and diesel fuels. These vehicles have a 15- to 20-year lifespan. That is the reality. Long distance mobility demands continued use of gasoline and diesel.

Norman Zanetti

Pinehurst

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JER 1 year, 10 months ago

I suppose we could consider limiting and or eliminating the need for "long distant mobility". When we really need to travel great distances, we could consider using mass public transportation. We could consider changing what we demand as part of our "quality of life" by reducing the need for things that make up our current lifestyle. We could make it a national priority to find green, renewable sources of cheaper energy to replace our dependence on fossil fuels. Or we could continue doing what we're doing and twenty years from now we can have this discussion again.

ProudYankee 1 year, 10 months ago

The problem with continuing to keep your head in the sand, by denying the future feasability of greener forms of energy, is that it leaves your tail end up in the air, waiting to get bit off, when the Middle East shuts down the oil flow.

Arestorer 1 year, 10 months ago

If we could take Politicians and lobbiest out of the mix, We could have probably solved alot of our energy probems 3 decades ago.

JRowerdink 1 year, 10 months ago

Norm is right. After all these years, we have no sensible energy policy.

Even as an oil company retiree, I am among the first to agree that we need to focus our future needs on non-oil & gas energy sources. I am I favor of pursuing everything, including wind, solar, electric, biomass, etc. etc. etc., as aggressively as economically feasible.

In the meantime, however, let’s not leave ourselves exposed to the whims of the hostile OPEC countries. We have lots of oil and gas reserves in this country and we should develop them while we wait for the “green” sources to become viable. Or we can continue to do nothing, which is what we’ve been doing for the last forty years.

John Rowerdink

Bigguy 1 year, 10 months ago

Hostile Opec countries. Remember we import more oil from Canada than from Saudi Arabia. But I agree that we need to exhaust al efforts to find an alternative source of energy.

JRowerdink 1 year, 10 months ago

Bigguy...It's true that we import a lot of oil from Canada and from some other non-OPEC sources. However, the bottom line is that 80% of the world's proven oil reserves are in the OPEC countries, so they still control world oil supply and oil prices. This is high risk for America, from the standpoint of economics ($400 billion/yr) and national security. We need to develop more of our own. We can't eliminate imports but we can reduce it.

theonewithsense 1 year, 10 months ago

Maybe we could create a federal agency to help us with energy. They could figure out how to make us less dependent on foreign oil. I'm sure we could invest a small amount of money in this agency, and the payback would be tremendous.

JRR1948 1 year, 10 months ago

I just returned from France. Gasoline there was 1.50 Euros per liter. A U.S. gallon contains 3.785 liters. A little simple math - if you you bought a gallon of gasoline today in Paris - it would cost you $8.07/gallon. Why is it that conservation or mass transit is NEVER an option for American drivers?

JRR1948 1 year, 10 months ago

Then why don't we raise the gasoline taxes and put the money into road construction, building bridges, etc. Maybe - increased cost of a gallon of gasoline would cause some people to rethink the need to drive anywhere everyday. Just a little common sense would reduce consumption. Wait - did I just ask Ameicans to use a little common sense? My bad...

Arestorer 1 year, 10 months ago

Ya'll look out in your driveways,,,,,,,,,,that is why we are dependant on oil......The public has demanded a certain type of vehicle, thats why the companies build them...Manufacturers have been able to build high fuel effeciency cars for more than 30 years,but the power hungry public wanted other types...We are not willing to pay the extra for Great American cars so the Asian market has skyrocketed...Some of their cars are great, but Im not going to ride around in a little tooth rattling Honda or Toyota, just to get 34mpg, when I can drive a Park Ave and get 30mpg..And if the public would demand it, the Park Ave could be getting over 50mpg by now...