How to Break the Oil Habit
The following was originally posted July 2006. I decided to repost it (with some minor updates) because I believe we need to stop talking about freeing ourselves from our addiction to oil and start to actually do something about it. Also, since it was only the 3rd article I posted, odds are I’m the only one who read it 
Although the price of oil has come down since this was written, the key points remain the same:
- We need to encourage research and development of alternative energy sources
- We need to encourage conservation of existing sources
- We need to do this in a way that limits the money funneled to terrorist backers like Iran
- We need to counter the money flowing out to terrorist nations with money flowing into our own government until we can break our addiction to oil
The bottom line for those not planning to read the entire article:
- I propose that for the next five years, a new federal tax on gasoline (not diesel.. just gasoline) be phased in, increasing from 25 cents a gallon the first year to $1.25 in year five and continuing until the end of the war AND the identification of a viable alternative to oil for 50% - 75% of our energy needs.
- Painful… sure. So is paying more for gasoline when OPEC raises the price of crude oil… but we get nothing out of it when they raise the price. If we ever expect to kick the oil habit and fund the war on terror… we need to be willing to make some sacrifices.
—— July 23, 2006 ——
How many of you believe the price of fuel is too high, probably going higher, will ultimately wreck our economy and we need prices lowered, stabilized and affordable? … Raise your hands.
How many of you believe oil is a limited resource, that we need to encourage conservation, we need to identify alternatives to our dependency on mid-east oil and until we find a way to break the shackles of oil dependency, our future will continue to be threatened by nut cases who line their pockets and grow their weapons stockpiles with buckets of money shipped overseas in empty crude oil containers courtesy of you and me? Raise your hands.
Did you raise your hand both times? I wonder how typical that is of Americans. We want fuel to be cheap and “affordable” so we can use as much as we want, yet we know that we also need to conserve this limited resource and find alternatives. Trouble is, as long as fuel is affordable, there is no incentive to conserve and little incentive to find alternatives. As with any addict, we won’t stop consuming until the supply is gone or the cost is so high we can’t pay for the fix.
How much does a gallon of gasoline have to cost for us to change our driving habits. Gas hits $5 a gallon, are you still driving down to the shore or out to the country every weekend? Would $8 a gallon convince you to walk to the corner store instead of drive? $10 and maybe it’s not worth driving 15 miles to see if you can get this new lawn mower at another store for a few dollars less?
What about commuting? There will always be jobs where commuting is required (hard to work construction from the comfort of your family room); but do we all have to commute, or do we all think we have to commute? Until 6 years ago, I commuted to work, 100 miles round trip, every weekday. That’s 500 miles/week; assuming four weeks for vacations, holidays, other days off, that’s 24,000 miles per year. My car got 30 miles to the gallon, which is better than average, which means I was using about 800 gallons of gas a year just to drive to work!
Assuming there are just 1 million people in a similar situation who could be working from home. (not out of the question considering our current population is about 300 million according to the US Census and 14 million of us commute 45 minutes or more one way to work), that would be a yearly reduction of 800 million gallons of gasoline!!!!
According to the Energy Information Administration, in 2004 47% of the cost of a gallon of gasoline was to pay for the crude oil. Assuming a gallon of gas costs $3.00, those 800 million gallons means more than $1.1 BILLION dollars going to the crude oil producers like Iran!! Every year. From those 1 million of us who might want to consider not commuting and setting up a home office.
$1.1 Billion dollars that could be spent here in the USA instead of on rockets for Hezbollah who then fires them into Israel while trying to distract us from the nuclear games Iran is playing.
So demand continues to rise, prices continue to rise, the amount of real dollars shipped overseas to crude oil producers continues to rise, and available supplies continue to drop. Even if raising crude oil prices causes a drop in consumption, the profit margin for the producers likely offsets the decrease in volume since the bulk of the price hike goes into their pockets. What we need to do is reduce demand by raising prices in such a way that the crude oil producers do not benefit.
I can’t believe I am saying this, because I am almost ALWAYS opposed to new or increased taxes, but….
- We need to encourage research and development of alternative energy sources
- We need to encourage conservation of existing sources
- We need to do this in a way that limits the money funneled to terrorist backers like Iran
- We need to counter the money flowing out to terrorist nations with money flowing into our own government until we can break our addiction to oil
We need a (hand shaking as I type) Homeland Security and Energy Evolution Tax.
Look, the price of gas is going to go up until the demand comes down, and a lot of the money will go to weapons for terrorists. In simplistic terms, if raising prices reduces demand, and if demand outruns supply, the prices are going to go up until demand and supply meet a state of equilibrium, period. Inserting a tax into the equation drives down demand without increasing the flow of money to the crude oil producers.
Demand goes down, less money flows to terrorist nations, and we perhaps buy some time to develop alternative energy sources.
So where does that revenue go? Two places, and only two places. First, 50% goes to sponsor research for domestic sources of energy that require no dependence on foreign resources. The other 50%, directly to Homeland Security and Defense.
Are we at war? Well duh! So why are you whining about a tax to support the war effort and to eliminate one potential cause (if not the root cause) of the war? (Come on, some of you are whining and you know it) If we weren’t dependent on foreign oil maybe our decision making when attacked wouldn’t be so complicated… bad guys go boom!
I propose that for the next five years, a new federal tax on gasoline (not diesel.. just gasoline) be phased in, increasing from 25 cents a gallon the first year to $1.25 in year five and continuing until the end of the war AND the identification of a viable alternative to oil for 50% - 75% of our energy needs.
Painful… sure. So is paying more for gasoline when OPEC raises the price of crude oil… but we get nothing out of it when they raise the price. If we ever expect to kick the oil habit and fund the war on terror… we need to be willing to make some sacrifices. This doesn’t even come close to what our country sacrificed in World War II. Time to suck it up people!
Stumble it!