gas war
Posted By Sherry on May 3, 2007
Last night as I drove out of Newberg I noticed the gas prices are $3.59/gallon. The last time I filled up my jeep it cost me $52.79! I’m the last person to complain because I live one block from where I work, but I’m not sure there’s a real good reason for gas to cost that much. I can’t help but think of the amount of effort a cow takes to produce a gallon of milk and we pay only $1.99 for it. Maybe someone should invent an engine that runs on milk.
You’ve probably received e-mails that encourage you to refrain from buying gas on a particular day in the hope of getting whoever decides the gas prices to lower them. I could never quite figure out why someone thought that would work. A friend in Michigan just forwarded an e-mail to me that suggests a different tactic: stop buying from the two major oil companies—Exxon and Mobil—altogether. Since we use Chevron, we wouldn’t have to change our patterns. What do you think? Would it work? Would it get someone’s attention?
Unfortunately, our culture is based upon total mobility. We don’t live in “villages” where we can walk to work, walk to the market, walk home. Our whole economy is based upon the “mall” mentality, huge conglomerations of stores in satellite areas, accessible only by car. If you’re lucky enough to live in a city where buses run with some kind of regularity to logical places, you can utilize alternate forms of transportation. But I work on the opposite side of town from where I live…I have to be here at 7 am, the first bus that runs in the morning doesn’t pick up at my stop until 7 am. Hence, I drive.
The ‘attack specific companies’ tactic is rumored to be likely more effective, but the magnitude of social engineering required to pull this kind of a feat off is staggering. If I lived within 30 minutes and mostly city streets of my work, I would bike and/or jog. And I have done this in the past and the effect on my gas bill was amazing. Now I live 30 highway minutes from work and human-power motation is just not feasible. It’s sad. The oil companies know they have us over a barrel (pun intended) and that’s why they keep posting recording profits. Refinery costs have not increased as they like to state, as evidenced by the fact that their profit margin is increasing, too.
Working closer to home, carpooling and public transportation are all very good options. Or, move to Iran, where the current gas price is about $.34/ga.