Daniel Cecil
Published: December 7, 2005
The other day while sitting in the student center, I happened to overhear a group of people talking about the ridiculous gas prices. In the course of their conversation, I overheard someone say something to the effect that it was all President Bush’s fault. I had to listen closer and wait for them to justify that position. More than 10 minutes went by and there was no credible argument made.
As ridiculous as gas prices are, so is the idea that Bush could be responsible. Were it not for the fact that I only had 10 minutes before my next class, I probably would have said something.
Regardless of political affiliation, high gasoline prices can be attributed to three things: consumption, production, and exploration. I just wish that I had the time to help people understand what has brought us to this point, because if I did, I might have explained these concepts.
Even after having gone through the gasoline scares of the 1970s and 80s, the U.S. consumer has continued its love affair with the big cars and now SUV’s. With the possible exception of some major U.S. cities like New York and Chicago, mass transportation is an oddity and carpooling is almost nonexistent. From a consumption standpoint, the United States is the most gluttonous user of gasoline on the planet.
The production of gasoline is the next thing that affects the cost of gasoline. It is important to understand that gasoline does not come out of the ground ready to be pumped into your car. Crude oil is first pumped from the ground and then transported to a production facility. It has been more than 30 years since a new oil refinery has been built in the U.S. The fact that the majority of all U.S. production facilities are concentrated along the Gulf Coast only accentuates the need for more facilities, especially in view of the last two hurricane seasons, which have caused the production from these same facilities to suffer.
In spite of the concerns raised by environmentalists, we possess the technology to explore for and extract oil safely with proper consideration of the environment. Americans have allowed their own “not in my back yard” mentality to put us where we are. Everyone wants a big car, but not a refinery, or worse, an oil well in the back yard.
This same mentality has caused the most recent brown-outs in California. The residents of California haven’t allowed an electrical plant to be built there in decades and consequently they have been forced to rely on out-of-state providers for electricity. Just as Californians are at the mercy of out-of-state providers for electricity, Americans have put themselves at the mercy of outside sources for crude oil.
In the final analysis, gasoline is a commodity that is subject to supply and demand. The ridiculous gas prices are less a product of any of the Presidential administrations of the last 20 years and more of a monster of our own making.
In an effort to help my friends in the student center to ponder all of this, I would probably suggest that instead of complaining about gas prices, and how our government might be responsible, maybe it would be wiser for them to take a walk to their next destination and look for the causes of higher gas prices in their own backyard.