Painful At The Pump

Standing at the gas pump, which is a place I find myself at least twice a week these days, I can do nothing but shrug at the final cost for my tank of gas. $30 for 11 gallons of fuel, and all of those gallons will be burnt up within four days in my 60 mile a day work commute. That kind of commute in the city actually isn’t all that uncommon, especially in metro areas that are larger than that of Minneapolis.

Honestly, if public transportation were an option to where I go every day, I’d be jumping on the bus every day. But as Minneapolis public transportation doesn’t quite reach the outer suburbs, I have to drive. In doing that I burn about 16 gallons of fuel per week. That’s about 26 mpg, imagine what that would be like in one of the many gas-guzzling vehicles that are so popular these days. Ultimately, with four weeks in a month I’m spending about $172.00 per month for fuel, $2,073.00 per year. It’s amazing how just a couple years ago we were complaining about $1.60 per gallon being too high.

Now Minneapolis is seeing prices over $2.70, which is considered cheap compared to other parts of the country and in Europe. It all seems so insane to me as I remember a time just before I started driving and gas was below $1.00 per gallon. Now we’re faced with the reality that we may never see it go below $2.00 again. I often wonder why I couldn’t have been starting out my career at that time when gas was so much less expensive, why couldn’t I have been commuting all over the place on my own dollar then? Oh and being around before the dot-com/technology bubble popped at the end of the 90’s would have been good in my profession, too. Now I’m out there struggling with the best of them.

I also wonder - why aren’t there more people asking questions about this oil situation? In the 1970s they would have called this a “crisis.” I’ve wondered about this, and I looked around to compare today’s prices to the prices during the mid-1970s energy crisis. It turns out, with inflation factored in, we’re actually paying more. (See the graph below, courtesy of the DOE).

So where are the rationing laws? Where are the long lines at the gas stations? Where are the speed limit laws? Why do I continue to see growing numbers of enormous, gas-guzzling SUVs driven by everyone on the road every day? I just don’t get it, where is the outrage?

Many argue that comparing today to the 1973 situation is flawed, because cars get much better fuel mileage these days. I respond to that by comparing the fuel mileage of an average car used for commuting in the 70s such as my first car, a 1977 Chrysler LeBaron, to that of today’s popular commuting vehicles which is composed of a scary percentage of gas-guzzling SUVs which get worse gas mileage than most 1970s sedans did.

The gas mileage of 2000 model vehicles averaged 28.1 miles per gallon, worst fuel economy since 1980. The main reason for the decline in gas mileage was the popularity of the SUV, garnering about 50% of car sales in 2000. If car manufacturers were to increase their fleets’ average gas mileage about 3 miles per gallon, this country could save a million barrels of oil every day, while US drivers would save $25 billion in fuel costs annually. Credit: Ecobridge.org

Not a big surprise. Everyone knows that there has been a steep rise in SUV and trucks used for city driving, while there are plenty of models of more energy-friendly minivans or large sedans available at a lower cost. Can anyone explain this nonsense to me? Why does your 16 year old need a Ford Expedition to get to the mall and back?

If you’re my age, surely you had read about the great energy crisis of the 1970s in a history class at some point. If you’re older, you may even remember it. During that time, rationing of gasoline occurred in many countries. People faced long lines at gas stations, and the rule was that drivers of vehicles with license plates having an odd number as the last digit were allowed to purchase gasoline for their cars only on odd numbered days of the month. People with vehicles having even numbered license plates were allowed to purchase fuel only on even numbered days. (Wikipedia) I’m not sure how well that worked, considering most people don’t buy gas every day of the month anyway. Do they? Well, the restrictions were abolished in 1976.

During the 70s crisis a national maximum speed limit of 55 miles per hour was also put in place. This was imposed to help reduce fuel consumption, which continues to this day to be one of the justifications for highway speed limits in the U.S. It has also been claimed that traffic fatalities dropped significantly when the maximum speed limit was put in place. As a result, that law was not completely reversed until 1995.

The current crisis was caused by our very own complacency. Americans are just as dependent on oil today as they were in 1973, except this time there’s no excuse. The ludicrous American obsession with four-ton land monsters has finally, in reality, been exposed for the sham that it is. But people still just don’t get it:

“The difference between a vehicle that gets 20 miles to the gallon as opposed to 40 miles to the gallon, if they are both driven 12,000 miles a year, is about $600 a year. For many people, that is simply not enough to make them switch vehicles.” Credit: Aiadia.org

Who are these people? That kind of money is more than enough for me and certainly a lot of money for people who are in worse situations than I am. And we’re the ones getting hit with it the worst, simply because other people can afford it and just don’t care. Do these people consider the ultimate effect their greed has on the big picture? I know that I’m in a pretty fortunate situation compared to some. I complain a lot and wish things were going a little better, but I know that I probably have no idea just how much worse it could be. To me, $172.00 per month is a ton of money. I know that to many others, it’s a whole lot more money than I can probably even imagine.

Sometime during my lifetime America fell asleep to the soothing gurgle of cheap gas. When are people going to wake up? This is a problem. We’re a very spoiled nation, and we should know better. Isn’t anyone else getting tired of this?

Well, at least we have this promising invention. Recommend it to every SUV-driving soccer mom you know.