Perspective

America, Making the Switch; Getting More Done With Less

Publisher perspective

It's time to dust off those long stored away ideas on how to save gas. In 1973, 1985 and 2000 when gas went to the unbelievable price of $1.00, $1.50 and $2.00 dollars per gallon we found lots of ways to save. Remember the long lines, people who ran out of gas while waiting to get gas. Remember 1973 and trading in the big Cadillac for two Toyotas or two Volkswagens.

The sticker shock of $3.29 per gallon seems to have thrown the nations consumers into a stop-spending mode as recorded by our unsubstantiated survey of businesses during the month of May. Although far from scientific the general feeling is that things were going good right up to April 15th and then you could feel the brakes lock on the spending habits of the country.

However, if you’ve been on the road recently, you cannot tell $1.50 from $3.50. People are moving and going as never before. You would think that some how, some way the driving would have slowed or even stopped, but not in America. Not in this economy. The view on the streets would indicate that we shifted into an even higher gear in an attempt to compensate for the excess dollars that are now needed to fill our tanks.

The difference between $2.50 and $3.50 is about $20 per tank for the average consumer and not that big of a deal if you’ve got an extra twenty, but what if you don’t. What about seniors on fixed incomes, students and young families? In business how about trucking, the outside sales guy with a territory, the delivery service, FedEx, UPS, the pool guy, construction, airlines and even the paper boy who by the way is no longer a boy in our neighborhood. Everyone is getting walloped, but some have an even heavier burden to bear.

What to do? We encourage everyone to do more with less and to embrace every possible practice that would conserve fuel and resources. There are plenty of suggestions coming from nearly every corner. The multitude of printed sources will give you the top ten or twenty things you can do to cut back on gas consumption. We will instead devote a bit of space to get all of us thinking about long-term solutions.

We also encourage you to look for political candidates in the upcoming elections who are likewise thinking long term.

Here are our top ten recommendations for putting a permanent end to $3.50 gas.

  1. Organize a national commission whose single directive from the U.S. President is to reduce the US dependence on foreign oil by at least 50% or more by 2010. Give us Lee Iacocca or Peter Ueberroth as chair. In 2000, the US consumed an average of 19.5 million barrels of oil every day. Guess what happens to the price of oil when we stop buying millions of barrels every day.

  2. Assemble the top 20 oil exploration companies, together with the top 20 environmental groups. Assign one environmental group to each exploration company; mandating that they explore and drill for oil in every square inch of this country. Your job Mr. Environmentalist is to insure that it’s done right with the least possible impact on the environment and if something bad happens it’s your fault. Know this; we’re going to explore; we’re going to drill. If you have a better way to accomplish these tasks then it’s time you put your theories and passion to good use.

  3. Declare a national emergency so as to place specific and needed powers in the hands of the President allowing the ability to enforce policy with congressional knowledge and input, but without congressional sabotage. First job with new powers; immediately suspend regulations that require specific refinement formulations that unnecessarily increase the cost of gasoline to the consumer and restrict supply.

  4. Provide immediate financial and tax incentives to car companies or other inventors that can mass-produce more fuel-efficient automobiles and viable hybrids. Our current crop of car manufacturers have missed the mark when it comes to fuel-efficient.

  5. Provide financial and tax incentives for oil companies to build new more efficient refineries in areas where there is reduced likelihood of damage or destruction from natural disasters.

  6. Explore and refine the process of extracting oil from shale reserves in Utah and Colorado. Again utilizing our environmental friends, get this source online immediately.

  7. Gather the nation’s top nuclear scientists and engineers to expand nuclear power production of electricity. Work non stop to refine the processes needed to insure safety both short term and long term. Determine what must be done to insure safety while producing energy as well as the safe disposal of the waste by products.

  8. Provide scientific and technological support and financial incentives to bio fuel companies. Ethanol and Hydrogen fuels can make a significant difference.

  9. Educate and motivate the general public and business to reduce and simplify. We can all become more efficient in the amount of fuel we consume. Make it a matter of national security and pride that we are all going to get more done with less. That makes for a great slogan -America, Getting More Done With less. Less fuel, less pollution, less cost.

  10. Encourage our new Energy Commission to carry a big stick to use on companies and individuals who needlessly waste these valuable resources or who in the pursuit of these resources do not take necessary steps to protect our people and the land we call home.

    11. This country and its resources have come to us at a great price. We need to place greater value on them and hold everyone to a higher standard of accountability. We cannot live with the wrong thinking that we don’t have the ability and responsibility to find and harvest what this country needs. That is a level of stupidity that has led us to the dilemma we now find ourselves facing. We are better than this.

    We have been taught and shown how to be and do better. We are surely smarter than the problem. We need only to unite ourselves with common goals linked to processes and procedures that preserve and protect that which we are so blessed to have, while providing for our people and perpetuating a level of self reliance that has been missing for far too long. a

July 200