Oil dependency unavoidable despite continuing price hikes

April 24, 2006 —

Gas prices are soaring ... again. Just last week, record highs in oil barrel prices were recorded and I can hear students complaining already.

Watching CNN, I saw a man pawn a 100-year-old watch for gas money. This made me shake my head and wonder why the price of gas must be so high. It doesn't seem like anyone has an answer.

Some say our nation needs to be more self-sufficient. "Open the reserves in Alaska," one man on the CNN report said. But reportedly, a gas station in Alaska that was only 150 miles from the oil line was selling gas at $3.50 a gallon.

The 7-11 on the corner of Bay and Pierce road was at $2.88 on Thursday. But in Los Angeles, gas prices averaged out at around $3.20. The same went for Chicago. We are feeling it much less here than the rest of the country, but nevertheless, it is clear that the trend of rising prices is alarming. What can we do?

Is a boycott of gas stations the answer? I don't know how many times I've been told "buy your gas today, because Thursday, no one is going to buy it," as if that would show them.

Let's get one thing clear first - that's not a boycott. In order for a boycott to take place, we would have to stop purchasing their goods and services for a long period of time. Oil is too harsh a mistress to give up for more than a day or so.

We as a society are far too dependent on oil. Energy needs are expected to double by 2020. Where is it going to come from? The easy solution seems to be to look elsewhere to fuel our vehicles and heat our homes.

The good news is that several motor vehicle manufacturers are taking steps to provide us with alternatively fueled vehicles and hope to have them on the market in the next 10 years. The problem with this is that they will be likely far too pricey for the average American to afford and it will be years before they will be completely integrated into our society.

We aren't the only country in need of vast quantities of oil anymore, either. China is reporting rapidly increasing numbers of vehicles in their country; it is estimated that vehicle ownership is up in China nearly 150 percent since 1996. And with China's growing industrial sector, it is unlikely that these numbers will level off anytime soon.

So what can we do? It's clear that the only reasonable answer to that question is nothing. We have to have oil, we need to run our cars, so all we can really do is take it on the chin and keep going. Yelling at the clerk at your local 7-11 isn't going to make the price go down. They'll probably just spit in your slurpee. Take solace in the fact that we are all hurting at the pump and we aren't hurting as bad as the hipsters in L.A.