We are hurting. Hurting badly. The price of gasoline has risen precipitously, and the impact of another major hurricane season could drive those costs to the astronomical. The price of oil is just being felt throughout the economy, from air travel to fertilizer to food. Coupled with the economic downturn, and the falling value of our major asset, our homes, the outlook is not pretty.
We are told by the right-wing Republicans that the only way to solve this problem is to forget about the longer-term environmental concerns, throw more megatons of carbon into the atmosphere, and another $17 billion to the oil companies to boot. But, even their irresponsible solutions will take years before an effect on supply will be significant.
Give the Democrats some credit for being more responsible. Their solutions, however, are also future-oriented, and will do nothing in the next few years to ease these economic woes. Politically, there are few themes more appealing than referencing new technology, unleashing the creative energies of our people to build a new energy economy. I agree.
But, in the meantime, the oil companies will continue to exact tribute in ever-increasing amounts. It is a tax in the true sense of the term because the costs of extracting and refining the oil and have remained unchanged. Instead of the revenues going to the government, however, these taxes go to oil company coffers and to the oil cartel countries that fund terrorism.
As I have previously written, when oil seemed outrageously priced at $75 per barrel (!), there is an immediate solution that can stave off the negative impacts until a renewable, home-built, energy infrastructure can be established.
Double-up on our drive to work. That is it. It is a phone call or email to arrange.
Here are the benefits: the price of gasoline will plummet. Moreover, each person will save half of the remaining cost, providing more money in his pockets instead of the oil companies'. The roads will be less crowded, so that time lost in hooking up with one another will be gained in reduced travel time. Half the carbon will be thrown into the atmosphere. With the lower cost of gas, the weekend drive to grandma's will be affordable.
But, this will never work unless "everyone" participates. For that to occur, two elements are necessary. First, we need a "National Screw the Oil Companies and Terrorists Week" to mobilize the country, as if we had been invaded by a foreign foe, to prove to ourselves that indeed such a change in driving habits during the work week can happen, and to experience the benefits.
Second, to enable these arrangements to be made in the first place, a website with the tools to provide people the most convenient schedules needs to be constructed. That is not difficult, but will take a little time. And, a little money.
I write this to ask your advice and support. Believe me, I understand this is a band-aid for a problem that requires major surgery. But, in my profession, we try to stop the bleeding to preserve the opportunity for successful surgical outcomes.
1. Would you support a "National Screw the Oil Companies and Terrorists Week" that would mobilize the country to double-up for the drive to work for a week?
2. If provided the tools to find a convenient driving partner, would you give it a try for a week?
3. If it worked, would you support taking a lane that is not currently HOV and making it so, in order to encourage the doubling-up behavior to continue?
Please respond. I would like to hear from those who do not think this is worthwhile in the short-run as well from those who do.
We do a lot of talking together, and that is good. But, can we act? Together?
(As a corollary, it would be a profound experience if this new medium, the net, could be used not only to elect a president, or shine light on a criminal administration, but actually to act).
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McCain is in bed with ENRON...he will never be elected..
Want to know why oil is out of whack....listen
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#25252591
Back in the late 70's and early 80's it was harder to car pool than it would be today with cell phones and GPS systems, that would make it relatively easy for people to get together. There should also be a car-pooler's "Rules of etiquette" establish, for such sharing programs a head of time.
Great post Paul, yet I'm thinking it would be better to title such a program as helping one another, than screwing the bad guys, although it would serve that purpose.
Because I am self-employed, I gave up my office and work from my home now. I was concerned I would feel isolated, and end up like Jack Nicholson in The Shining, but I actually love it.
Another great idea: telecommute two or three days a week.
Your holiday is a great idea if for no other reason than that it ties The Oil Companies in with the Terrorists and puts it in peoples faces. Even Cheney will have trouble spinning that one.
Can't double up I'm on a bicycle.
Yes you can... get a tandem.
We are all part of the problem and it goes much deeper than carpooling....but carpooling is a viable step in the right direction.
We need every voting citizen in this country to:
1. Get involved at the local level - next time they want to put in a new suburb or subdivision that's in the middle of nowhere, we need citizens asking the question - "how are people going to get to/from there?"
2. We need people to vote for bond initiatives that pay for something other than widening roads/bridges. Bike routes, pedestrian bridges, mass transit options, etc...., need to be considered strategic options for the voting populace.
3. We have to stop criticizing mass transit options for not turning a profit or breaking even. The fact that billions of dollars of public infrastructure goes every year to support cars is the biggest government subsidy of all.
4. Next time any of us have the chance to move - we all have to consider moving somewhere closer to work, schools, shops, etc..
5. We need to put meaningful tax incentives in place for corporations who encourage telecommuting and telework. While these things experienced a boom in the late 90's, they are stagnating and many companies in uncertain times have pulled people back to the cubicles.
This is a systemic issue - we have to treat the system, not the symptoms.
Indeed this is a systemic issue, we need to start talking bout how to get beyond car dependence NOW.
We have wasted thirty years on the Green Automobile lie, the answer we need is a society with fewer cars.
I agree that conservation should be a primary strategy for Americans.
However, I wish authors would quit dropping little bits of obfuscation in their articles.
First of all, the war on terror is total bs. Al Qaeda has about 1000 members at best and is not supported by the vast majority of Arabs or Muslims. We all understand by now that the administration used terrorism as an excuse to invade Iraq and continues to use terrorism to mislead the public.
Secondly, the primary cause of the runup in oil prices is speculation. This situation is very similar to the California power debacle engineered by Enron. This administration, via the CFTC, is again looking the other way while a small group of greedy bast**ds rapes the general public. View this short video for a good explanation:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=08CJZty9HEE&feature=user
So conserve all you can - but don't buy that other bull.
Anyone other than me remember this?
kalaka
Derived from an public service commercial aired during the 70's. The commercial describes Noah as the first to carpool. Kalaka is "ancient Babylonian" for carpool.
"Do you want to kalaka? I will have two extra seats in my minivan."
Maybe the *kalaka* ads need to be resurrected and aired.
A corporatist is not going to support ads that diminish the profits of those corporations. Who would sponsor these ads today? Funding is not going to cross the desk of this current administration... not while their trust funds are receiving those huge dividend checks.
Agreed, but we'll see a one term Obama if that's all you call for. Carpooling failed before, what makes you think this can work again. Reagan came in and routed any plan for gov't sponsored mass transit plans and ripped out our fledgling solor tech companies' solar panels from the White House. So, why did Carter lose to such a neanderthal? Because Reagan arranged for an net oil exporting country, Iran, to appear strong against Carter and weak against him. Merely minimizing your oil use without a long term impenetrable plan to subvert oil and auto companies' stranglehold on the economy, will only see resentment against Obama and continued destruction of our future.
I agree with much of your post but would draw your attention to the fact that the effects of pollution and overpopulation were just begining to be publicised in the 70's and 80's for the masses. Now we have Climate change (Katrina, tornadoes killing boy scouts, etc.) on top of the rise in price of oil and falling supply. The ideaology typified by Regean and McCain is simply not sustainable. It is an ideaology for old farts. Sure you still see the macho young twenty something's beating their chests driving massive pick'em up trucks and using phrases like tree hugger and environazi, but even they can't ignore the bashing their taking at the pump. I believe people will wake up as there lifestyles are brutally impacted. They way they did during The Great Depression.
#1 issue is to stop pitching a partisan Democratic point. We will solve this when the people openly acknowledge it is BOTH the Dems and Reps that are fouling up things. When will we see politicians work for the people instead of pitching party points.
Probably true. But after almost 8 years of THE worst "government, ever, it's hard not to come down primarily on Republicans. dems were pretty much powerless during most of this time, so I'll admit I feel less of an urge to hold their feet to the fire.
You mean the way the communists tried to work things out with the National Socialist party in Germany during the thirties.
You hit the nail on the head. Sometimes I almost think voters are worse than politicians in partisanship.
Sometimes.....
Almost.....
Well, that is the first sensible post in this thread. There is plenty of blame to go around. Democrats and Republicans have not acted in the best interests of this country and its people, but instead, in the best interests of the Politicians, themselves. This is what must be changed. Unfortunately, I do not see that happening in this election.
Most of the posters in this thread must live in urban areas I say this from the "solutions" they give. i.e. riding a bike to work, commuting with another person, etc.
I drive many miles per week, because I do not know where I need to be from day to day.
Therefore, most of the "solutions" offered in this thread will not work for me. I do try to limit my driving, however.
I suspect that there are many thousands like me, who do not live in urban areas.
We need effective measures for immediate solution to the chain effects from oil price increase. Stop oil speculation. Get out of Iraq now! They show they can handle themselves by chasing Al Qaeda out. The sooner Iraq gets it oil production back to peak World oil production will increse, there may some respite.
On the long run, we must face reality and use alternative power source like electricity and solar energy to reduce dependency on oil. Bio fuel is also a temporary solution that will create more problems in the future than solution.
In both the long and short run, gas prices will drop when the media says " Decrease in Demand for Gas" and that will only happen when we all drive electrical and alternate cars.
America speaks about that, but does nothing. Europe drives on propane and methane, and India (yes, that Asian country out there, with the people that we like to joke about) makes the first compressed air car right now, today, as we speak, on the assembly lines of Tata (check youtube for "air car")!
So let's get real - what should America do to show a reduction in demand for oil? Or otherwise ban speculation on the oil futures market?
Traffic is way down on the county roads in NM. Some gas station owners across the country say their business has been cut in half.
Reports speak of many oil tankers sitting loaded in the Gulf with no place to go as demand is so far down.
Now Saudi Arabia announced they are increasing production, ostensibly to ease pricing, but they complain it is the speculators that are the culprits in the price of oil.
Once the oil bubble in the market pops, prices could fall by 50 %...or not.
They have us over a barrel now, but this reduction in use is a good thing and we should continue to find ways to economize.
Part two
So, now, as a result of a host of reasons, petrol/oil is now above what we are used to. Instead of seeing "well, I guess we have to change our lifestyle", its a whole host of -sue the oil companies- -have a week long strike- -arrest the Speculators. Not for the reasons that multinational companies need to be roped in. That would be great. No, only because it is linked to people having to pay more our of their pocket.
Or is it that you have ALWAYS been against Speculators, and only now can you voice it?
Is it that you dont want to be inconvenienced by paying more the real cost of the effects of oil? I am thinking that. Instead we get this 'outrage' against oil companies.
Many of my friends (+ myself) blockaded forestry operations and uranium mines + promoting permaculture & practicing it, and have been reading about our footprint on the earth. Consequently, I have never relied on the car to be my centrepoint, and have keep consumerism down to a minimum (Apple Computers are the only vice for consumerism, and I have all my Mac needs met).
Sorry guys, but from whatever viewpoint you look at the 'travesty' of these oil prices, cheap oil is over. And about bloody time too!
Make oil $8/gallon like Europe, and in the meantime, admit that you are forced to be an environmentalist (whether you want to or not) and go with the flow.
Part one
I dont understand people . . . why is everyone up in arms about oil prices being high, and the 'criminal' actions of oil companies?
Why not think instead that this is a WONDERFUL thing to happen, for the only thing at stake is the belief that cheap oil is a birthright.
I am sure a lot of you are quite knowledgeable on the effect humans are having on the environment. I am sure you are able to write long dissertations on the effect of global warming on our forests, climate and other systems. I am also sure that you know about recycling, and recycled water and other issues.
However, it seems that most people put the environment as arms length. We just had Earth Hour, where people were encouraged to turn off their lights for one hour to cool the earth (I guess). People had ladeda parties, and it was all cute and nice and didnt really ask us to do ANYTHING other than light candles for an hour.
"Why not think instead that this is a WONDERFUL thing to happen"
Umm, maybe because people are having to choose between gas and food? There is nothing wonderful about that. Thats third world sh*t. People are having 'choices' forced upon them by unreasonable prices that their government allowed. Im all for clean air and water, but getting it at the expense of the poor is not the way to go.
There's a guy who I work with that drives to work each day in his brand spankin new Hummer H2. I see plenty of brand new Expeditions, Excursions, Yukons, Suburbans etc on the road. We will never get ALL Americans to do anything willingly. Even if they bought the Hybrid Chevy Tahoe, it would be better than driving around in these mobile living rooms.
I think what works is for American's to get burned...like they are now. Mr Hummer has feel what it's like to pay 20 grand a year for gas!
THAT is the TRUE cost of freedom. People who are free to make bad choices that in turn negatively affect you and I and the rest of the planet.
If we really had a WWII "home-front" ethos right now it would be considered unpatriotic to drive an H2 or an Excursion or some such vehicle unless your business demanded it.
The ultimate act of non-patriotism is (in my opinion) to drive an H2 with a Yellow "support the troops" ribbon on it. You are supporting them by ensuring they will be in that quicksand in the middle east forever.
This type of grass roots organization never works.
Two reasons:
1) Too many people to coordinate. For the oil companies to collude, they just need to get a dozen guys in a room. For the people to revolt, you've gotta get tens of millions together at once for a common goal. Never happens.
2) Too many people would refuse to participate, even if word did get out. I can do the 20 mile drive from my house to the main town for my area right now and I guarantee you I'll pass at least 25 people driving in a huge SUV....by themselves. THey don't care.
And even if you did organize something like this, since the oil companies only care about quarterly reports, they would write off this one "week" as a blip.
LA give up!
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Posted June 12, 2008 | 01:46 PM (EST)