Price of Gas Concerning…Make a Statement, Avoid the Pump.
Our communities are concerned about the price of gas. Everywhere I go people are talking about how gas prices are effecting their finances and businesses. MarketWatch reports that this Memorial Day weekend some motorists will choose to stay home, or at least closer to home, because of the price of gas. There is much discussion about why the prices continue to climb. Is the world’s oil supply running low? Should we open more areas where we can drill oil? Can we decrease our dependence on oil?
The Price – how is it determined?
Asia Times Online reports that approximately 60% of the price of oil per barrel is determined by
“…unregulated futures speculation by hedge funds, banks and financial groups using the London ICE Futures and New York Nymex futures exchanges and uncontrolled inter-bank or over-the-counter trading to avoid scrutiny”.
This report goes on to explain how oil futures are purchased using a system that creates a leverage that helps drive prices continually higher.
Also, constant talk of our oil supply depleting (often referred to as “peak oil”) causes the price to continue to rise. Despite current big oil producers such as Saudi Arabia and Brazil making plans to extract more oil and recent reports by the American Geological Survey showing an estimated 3.65 billion barrels of oil in the Bakken there is still talk of the world’s oil supply being diminished.
What can we do?
It is apparent that the world still has an oil supply, big business is determining the price of oil and we are still purchasing gas for daily consumption. Out of necessity or desire we can make a decision to purchase less gas. We can make a statement with our purchasing power. Until we, as a community, decide to stop (or greatly reduce) buying gas at these prices, the prices will continue to rise.
Again we return to the pursuit of alternative energy. As a community we must continue this pursuit. As products and services grow, business opportunities grow too and we will see “money talk”. When we start spending our time and resources on things other than gas and oil the government will jump on board too. We can begin today, avoiding the gas pump!
Photo Credit: gimlack on Flickr
This gas crisis is so out of hand, that I’ve resorted to drastic measures. Recently I converted my 04 Cadillac to utilize water as fuel from an easy to install kit, I obtained online from a company called Water4fuel.info
I just heard an interview with Bill Kemp on The Watt Podcast and it was interesting because he compared an extra $1.2 or so per L of gasoline as being a $500/tonne (ton?) carbon tax equivalent. Ie That’s how much extra they pay in Europe and yet they don’t have very fuel efficient cars. So even if we doubled our gasoline prices – or added a $500/ton carbon tax (10x what the Green Party is pushing) then you can instantly save that much by simply switching to a car that gets 2x better milage (such as the VW diesels). I’m still waiting for a sub 1L car that can carry 4, or a hybrid with a sub 200cc engine for battery charging.
For my home and car – the major costs are purchase, maintaince, insurance – with energy being way way way down the line. If prices would double I’d not blink because taxes are 5x what energy costs me for my house.
It’s time things changed – so that we valued people who were thrifty – who didn’t see polluting and consuming as positive qualities. It’s time we stopped using slave labour to give us products so cheap that they’re not worth fixing. It’s time we produced (food, products) locally – for local consumption. It’s time we lived within our means – and shared what energy there is. Those of us in the first world need to have a one-child policy and cut our energy use to 1/10 of what it is (1/5 if we cut our population in half).
The way forward is to use less – to consume less – to do without – not chase techo dreams of newer technology to solve the problem that technology has created. We need to decouple food from fuel so that the rich don’t take food from the mouths of the poor.
We need to make a society that is positive – not based upon slave labour, death and destruction. Our society is destructive to individuals, the environment and every living thing. It’s not sustainable; it doesn’t make us happy and it needs to change soon.
Eric:
I agree with the notion that we should make products that last. I also abhor the use of low wage labor and especially the use of slave labor of people that have no choice at all. That is one of the reasons that my stomach turns whenever anyone points to Brazil’s ethanol industry as an example of an “efficient” way to produce biofuels.
However, I completely disagree with your characterization of a high energy use economy as one that is dependent on slave labor. History shows that economies that are based on manufacturing, efficient transportation and labor saving inventions that use commercially available fuel sources and electricity instead of human muscle are far less likely to be economies that depend on the use of involuntary labor.
Check out the Energy Slave entry in Wikipedia for an example commentary or simply do a Google search for the term “Energy Slave”.
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