Haynes.tv

With Prices at the pump starting to reach $4+ a gallon it may be time for Obama to release some oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Apparently he has indicated that he could had done it about a month ago, but he seems to be waiting for a worst trigger point; than the current crisis in Libya and the Mideast. Since Libya actually doesn’t supply that much oil only maybe 3% of our imports or a couple of 1000 barrels a month. Egypt is a relatively small source as well with only several hundred barrels a month. As of lately the biggest source of imports has been the oil sands in Canada, from which we are getting a couple 1000 barrels a day.

Since it is not a supply problem, but a speculation problem some would say we shouldn’t tap the reserve. However, considering the size of the reserve (about 700 million barrels of oil) it need not be depleted substantially to help ward off speculators for the time being. A speculation problem is just as bad as a supply problem with the effect being that it is takes money from those who can least afford it and gives it to those with the most. Obama’s solution would seem to be higher taxes, but the real solution would be to make the game fair, so you don’t have to reshuffle the deck and take the legitimate gains off the table along with the illegitimate gains.

Hybrids and electric vehicles simply remain cost prohibitive, both in terms of up front costs and practical savings. A Prius for example simply has too high of an initial cost and higher maintenance costs (for a battery replacements) coupled with limited availability in the secondary market that makes it cost prohibitive for the many working class folks who are hardest hit by the high gas prices.

So one the best solution right now would seem to be a ramp up in production coupled with a fast diffusion or flooding of the market from the reserve, which should bring the price down. Of course the problem is we cannot ramp up production at home much until infrastructure improvements are made and drilling is expanded. Also hybrids will have to be designed much more practically, and auto companies will have to greatly expand their hybrid production to bring prices down. Thus the main source of the current problem is the speculation, and there needs to be some sort of regulation or caps on oil speculation for the time being,because the notion that you can force people to drive less is just ridiculous.

Sure you can technically force people to drive less (or rather you can force the poor and lower classes to drive less), but the question of what you are really forcing people to do less of is hardly ever addressed. What people who think we should drive less are really saying is people need to do less and be less involved in the communities around them, because all our society is connected by roads and there is very limited connectivity for non-motorized vehicles.

Despite efforts to plan more compact communities after high school we cannot guarantee work places and public transit will always work out to be so close to home and practical. The fact of the matter is when public transit is actually available it is quite often not practical for must people since it can often involve quadrupling commute times or worst, and it still uses oil for the most part, albeit less.

Thus we are pushed into more indoor activities and community events and organizations tend to take a hit. So what high gas prices really does is discourage people from visiting parks, museums, recreational, cultural and historical sites around them. It encourages people to frequent places such as Walmart and many other one stop types of places, instead of shopping around at speciality and ma and pa type stores stores. It is just generally bad for society, and there is no way around some of these severe geographical limitations we up again in driving less.

Ultimately the problem of out of control market manipulation on such a necessity of life will have to be addressed in some way. Since, our modern society simply could not function without oil and since the bulk of farms are so far away from where people are living and our communities are simply too far spaced for non-motorized transportation in most cases. Driving less will not solve the problem, but will simply delay the inevitable market collapse as the problem diffuses into the upper classes.