Clearly, energy prices are soaring. Americans are now paying a bit more than $4 a gallon for gasoline and it seems from media reports that gasoline is headed into the stratosphere. However, reports over the past few days seem to have gasoline prices dropping.
Even with dire predictions that our suburbs will become crumbling wastelands because of high gas prices, it simply won’t happen. Take a look at Britain and Europe to see that even with gasoline prices in the $8+ levels, consumers can’t wait to hit the road and travel.
Our research has shown that traveling by car in Europe can be less expensive than rail travel. And our experience over the past three months driving Europe makes it clear that traffic jams are as bad as ever and toll roads are more expensive than ever.
Neither high tolls, nor high gasoline prices, are curtailing the Europeans’ love of travel by car. And, neither will the higher prices curtail automobile travel dramatically here domestically.
Yes, Americans reduced the number of miles they drove for the sixth straight month in April, resulting in the biggest six-month decline since the oil shock of the 1979-80 Iranian revolution, according to the U.S. Transportation Department. But there is no wholesale change of habits. There will be some readjustments based on costs, but overall the population of America will change some commuting and driving routines and keep their pedal to the metal.
Unfortunately for Americans, the gasoline price bubble will last longer than necessary because our congressmen seem to always want a silver bullet that will solve the problems that they have created. In this case it is the new series of bills against oil speculators. They are simply a red herring that politicians hope will keep the spotlight off the real problem — the need for US oil drilling and alternative energy development.
The day our government allows off-shore drilling and passes a package of incentives for exploration in Alaska (ANWR) and the northern plains states, the prices of oil will begin to drop. Even the Eskimos support drilling in ANWR.
Unfortunately, Congress is married to a fundamentalist religion of “Do Not Drill in Alaska” rather than doing what is best for the American people, Alaska’s natives and our economy. Stellar legislators such as John Kerry and Ted Kennedy who talk a good game about conservation have staunchly opposed the development of wind power in their own states while being equally opposed to drilling in Alaska. Their stances are hypocritical and do nothing to help Americans or the American economy.
I’ll bet that Teddy Roosevelt, who created the National Park System, would be the first to support aggressive oil drilling and energy independence.
The USA can be energy self-sufficient, but beliefs about oil drilling as foolish as Al Qaeda’s beliefs about being met in heaven by 72 virgins, are stopping us from developing our own energy sources.
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
