Everyone loves to talk about gas prices, but few can agree what to do about them. Pointless boycotts of local stations have no real impact on the price of gasoline because they are very temporary and not widespread despite organizing attempts on the Internet. It’d be almost like trying to control how much water is drank in a day, across a continent. Fortunately gasoline isn’t as essential to life as water is, so it is possible to do something about how much is used, and that’s why we need to increase the price of it.
Mother Nature is taking care of higher gas prices, slowly but surely, because oil is a finite resource. Is it fast enough to get humans to change how much we rely upon it, before we burn so much of it as to cause unstoppable climate change? Probably not. Fortunately there are ways to use less gasoline today, and the rest of the year, but it requires collective support and action from yourself, and your neighbours to make the change easy.
A great many people could choose to walk, or cycle to work tomorrow. In North America there are plenty of days left to plan a garden so your food supply is closer than a walk to the grocery store. And you can take a bus or train to your Summer holiday destination. If hundreds of thousands of Canadians did these things tomorrow, the price of gasoline would drop as if there was a recession.
And you can write a letter or email to your MLA, your city councilor, and your MP to let them know that you want investment in renewable energy that is so abundant that there’s too much of it if transmission lines aren’t up to the job. Canadians enjoy extremely low gas prices, except when compared to Americans who we love to use as a yard stick, but actually serve as a poor example of a country on the path to a sustainable future we can be proud of.
Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff 
Once again, you have hit the nail on the head. Until prices are at the point that people are thinking twice about filling that SUV for the 4th time in a month, people wont find alternatives. I have tracked my expenses for years and started putting more focus on fuel expenditure recently. I am burning half the fuel this month thnn the same month a year ago… and, really, it wasn’t a big lifestyle change. There’s more I can do and I am doing more every month…
Imagine if everyone in N.America made those small adjustments.
Thanks,
Darren
Thank-you for agreeing. It’s a controversial statement only because people don’t like paying fair prices for things they want. It’s certainly less extreme than most things talk radio personalities say any given day too.
Here are a couple of ideas…
One thing that pisses me off is how every other headline is about how great we’re doing here in the Frozen Waste(tm) and yet there seems to be no cash for public transit.
Um, I’m confused here. You say we need higher gas prices, yet you suggest if we ride public transit and bicycles the price will fall. So are you suggesting we should not ride public transit or ride bikes?
And if we ask our MPs for investment in renewables the same thing will happen, demand for gas will fall and so will prices. I’m really confused by this blog. One reader says you hit the nail on the head. OMG, do all you greenies think this confusing way? How do you get through each day?
Klem, you are confused, so I hope I can help you through that state. I’m not confused at all, so it’s quite easy to get through each day when you see all the work there is to do in the world — you can never be bored, only overwhelmed.
First, using “greenie” in a negative way is like using “gay”; it’s a rude attempt to take a way of being, and make it seem unattractive.
Yes, we need higher gas prices. You don’t like paying a lot for gas, and neither do I, even though I try to be green, and you apparently don’t. I’d like free gas, as would you, but we both need gas to be expensive so long as most people use so much of it that air pollution threatens our homes, our health, and the lives of millions of people. If a lot of people use half as much gas as they did previously, the price will fall, making it less expensive for when its use is required. As more people learn to live with less gasoline, the temptation to return to the cheap gas will diminish.
“As more people learn to live with less gasoline, the temptation to return to the cheap gas will diminish.”
Um, I think you are going to find that the cheaper it is the more they will use. But anyway I like your idea of expensive gas. Expensive gas will force poor people to use less, it won’t affect rich folks. I make a good living so it won’t bother me at all. I like your idea, it will make poor people take the bus. When there are less cars on the road because poor people are on the bus, there will be less traffic for me to deal with and I can work more and make even more money. Lets all work together to make gas too expensive for poor people. Wahoo!
These were practically written for you to open your eyes
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/06/26/ford.mobility/index.html?iref=obinsite
And this is from 2007, so keep in mind that Zipcar is huge now
By and large, I agree with you. However… there need to be some exemptions. For example, people in rural areas are often already living on very little. And they don’t have the option to take a walk to the grocery store, take a bus to anywhere, or bike to work. And the price of gasoline to fill their farm equipment will go right into our food prices.
For years and years, I was physically disabled. Not enough for the handidart. FAR too much for public transit. I had to drive. Hike up prices, and I couldn’t have gone anywhere. Ever. I’d have been a complete shut in. There are a lot of people in that situation. A lot.
That being said, I have a couple of ideas. Build into our drivers licences payment rates – farmer? Pay less. Rural address? Pay less. Disability? Pay less. More than 3 kids? Pay less (because you can’t have a small car with more than 3 kids – and riding transit with 4 kids is impossible and generally unsafe for all). Get caught lending out your cheapie card? Cancel all rebates for you. Forever. Plus an enormous fine.
Coming from a small town without bus service, an no walkable grocery store since the early 1980s, I sympathize to a great degree. I also think that we have to accept the reality of industrial agriculture food costing more if the price of fuel goes up, and it ultimately will more than it already has. People in rural Canada may lack some modern services, but they could be growing a fair bit of their own food more easily than people in urban areas, and food is a big chunk of household expenses. If governments provide modern transportation service including buses to rural communities, then there doesn’t need to be a huge fuel rebate for those in rural locations.
I like your ideas given, they could all be implemented. The exception is the more than 3 kids, which may have to be tied to geography. Back in the days when people routinely had large families you’d live on a farm so you could feed them all.
Klem was definitely complaining about the carbon tax last year, but look what they wrote about much higher gas prices:
“Expensive gas will force poor people to use less, it won’t affect rich folks. I make a good living so it won’t bother me at all.”