$4 and Counting
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| Also listed in: Courage Campaign Staff |
Yesterday I went to see the now lowly L.A. Lakers play at a popular bar in Los Angeles and a middle-aged guy pulls up in the parking lot blaring music from the speakers of his Hummer. Given the average price of a gallon of gasoline in Los Angeles and throughout California I couldn't help but feel pity for this guy. I'm more than sure he's handing over hundreds of dollars just to fill up the tank and go watch the Lakers lose again to the Boston Celtics, ouch!
But it didn't use to be that way. Back when Bill Clinton was president and the U.S. had a diplomacy-based foreign policy, California's average price per gallon of gasoline was at a low in 1998 at $1.45.
Can't forget about the Clinton Administration's bombing of Iraq in December of 1998. But even with that, annual average in California only jumped to $1.67 during 1999.
Of course, that military incursion was limited in scope and successful in its core mission to reproach Saddam Hussein's WMD ambitions and no-fly zone violations. By 2000, Clinton's last full year in office, the average per gallon in California had risen to $2.06.
That's just half of what we are paying today in the midst of President Bush's war of choice in Iraq and failure to produce a supportable energy policy that prefers sustainability over petroleum. Mix that in with a sluggish economy (which we also had in 2000) and growing economies in Asia that demand more oil and we get $4-plus prices at the pump.
Bad news is that there is no end in sight. India and China will only grow their need for more oil. Even if we did the unthinkable, drilling in ANWR, or off the shores of Florida and California, it would still take years to get the black gold flowing to the pump.
And we would still be running out of the planet damaging commodity. The good news as some people see it is that the high prices are sure to impact consumer behavior, already we hear reports of employers exploring ways to reduce the traffic commute of their employees by letting them work at home one day out of the week.
As much as I want to work from home, I'd rather have a renewable source of energy (one that doesn't raise food prices either) that effectively replaces the efficiency of refined petroleum.
Cant figure out which is worse, being down two games to the hated Celtics or paying $4.34 for a gallon of gas as I did yesterday afternoon. At least I'm not a Laker fan in a Hummer.
[All California average per gallon of gasoline prices (adjusted for inflation) listed are attributed to the California Energy Commission, http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/statistics/gasoline_cpi_adjusted.html]
But it didn't use to be that way. Back when Bill Clinton was president and the U.S. had a diplomacy-based foreign policy, California's average price per gallon of gasoline was at a low in 1998 at $1.45.
Can't forget about the Clinton Administration's bombing of Iraq in December of 1998. But even with that, annual average in California only jumped to $1.67 during 1999.
Of course, that military incursion was limited in scope and successful in its core mission to reproach Saddam Hussein's WMD ambitions and no-fly zone violations. By 2000, Clinton's last full year in office, the average per gallon in California had risen to $2.06.
That's just half of what we are paying today in the midst of President Bush's war of choice in Iraq and failure to produce a supportable energy policy that prefers sustainability over petroleum. Mix that in with a sluggish economy (which we also had in 2000) and growing economies in Asia that demand more oil and we get $4-plus prices at the pump.
Bad news is that there is no end in sight. India and China will only grow their need for more oil. Even if we did the unthinkable, drilling in ANWR, or off the shores of Florida and California, it would still take years to get the black gold flowing to the pump.
And we would still be running out of the planet damaging commodity. The good news as some people see it is that the high prices are sure to impact consumer behavior, already we hear reports of employers exploring ways to reduce the traffic commute of their employees by letting them work at home one day out of the week.
As much as I want to work from home, I'd rather have a renewable source of energy (one that doesn't raise food prices either) that effectively replaces the efficiency of refined petroleum.
Cant figure out which is worse, being down two games to the hated Celtics or paying $4.34 for a gallon of gas as I did yesterday afternoon. At least I'm not a Laker fan in a Hummer.
[All California average per gallon of gasoline prices (adjusted for inflation) listed are attributed to the California Energy Commission, http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/statistics/gasoline_cpi_adjusted.html]