Here & There Column 4-29-08

No Quick Fixes For Rising Gasoline Prices

No one likes to talk about it but the surge in prices at the gas pumps continues with no immediate relief in sight.
And the sad part of this situation is a majority of us do not appear to even attempt to cut back in the use of our vehicles or to plan our trips so that we can get the most bang out of our buck.
With prices in Sullivan County reaching past the $3.65 a gallon for regular it tends to make believers out of those who said we would never see $4.00 a gallon gasoline prices.
Gas prices are rising for many reasons, including oil's record run. Light sweet crude for May delivery rose to a new trading record of $119.00 before retreating to settle up $1.89 at a record $119.37 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange last week.
A quick analysis of it all finds that gas prices are nearly 66 cents higher than last year in May.
Rising gasoline prices have tightened the squeeze on drivers but what about folks who live up here in rural Sullivan County and need to drive 30 to 50 miles one way to get to their job. Where there is mass transit or subways folks are cutting back on driving and taking the subway more.
Energy Department data show Americans used about 1 percent less gas in the four weeks ended April 11 then they did a year earlier. Experts predict per-capita demand to drop further this summer unless gas prices fall.
Many who take long vacation trips in the summer are changing their summer vacation destinations as gasoline prices continue to make a bigger dent in their pocketbooks. Local folks we talk to in Sullivan County say they tend to plan their shopping and recreation trips together and do everything in one trip.
Now, the only thing as predictable as rising gas prices are the short-term political solutions that usually come along with them. Every year you see the same headlines, "Pain at the Pump" and then we start emptying our wallets to fill up our gas tanks and politicians go through the standard responses: "tax rebates and tax holidays, investigating price-gauging by oil companies."
Quite honestly we think its crunch time folks and we can no longer rely on quick fixes designed to placate an anxious public.
We need proactive solutions that are designed to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. Then we have to build cars that use less gasoline. With the technology our American and foreign car makers have their is no reason these companies cannot provide us with vehicles that get 50 to 60 miles per gallon without compromising passenger safety.
While the proposal of providing immediate relief in a suspension of the federal gas tax on gasoline from Memorial Day to Labor Day of this year would benefit the economy it would tend to be too short lived to have an overall effect on this major problem.
Proposals to replace the use of oil altogether as America's fuel of choice has great merits but the immediate benefits to us would not be seen for many years. It was interesting to read the other day that there is a company in Texas called the Sustainable Power Corporation who says they have perfected bio-fuel breakthrough and creates a crude oil equivalent at a fraction of the cost of conventional processes and they can make a bio-fuel for $42 per barrel..............if their literature and information is factual then I say bring it on as fast as you can.