Use less gas, and prices go down

Gasoline skyrockets, and consumers demand explanations and solutions -- just as they do every few years when prices spike. There are many reasons why the cost of gasoline as well as less-discussed home heating oil prices are spiraling upward. All we can do, to help ourselves and each other, is use less, and stop supporting policies and politicians that entice us to use more.

The prices are spiking now because of the weak dollar, the instability in the Middle East, the switch to the fuel blend used in warmer months, and the recovering demand sparked by the end of a worldwide recession and coming summer driving season. The price is rising overall, year-by-year, because demand is growing faster than production.

When we're standing at the pump and the tally is zooming upward, we never exclaim, "Wow, the dollar is really cheap these days." Instead, we note that gas is really expensive. Really, though, it's two sides of the same coin. As our government prints and borrows more and more cash, the value of the dollar is sinking, which makes the prices of things we trade dollars for, particularly the ones we buy from other countries, seem higher. At least 25 cents of the $1 per gallon increase in gas prices over the past year is due to a weakening dollar. We can't personally do much about these things.

The entire Middle East has destabilized over the past few months, and while there's no oil shortage right now, there is fear that there will be. A lot of players in the oil markets -- from the petroleum companies to industrial concerns to agricultural corporations to investors, the dreaded "speculators" -- are betting oil prices will go up, just as they did during the record price spike of 2008. Such speculative hedges sometimes drive oil prices up, and at other times drive them down. We can't personally do much about these things, either.

Also beyond our control is the rising energy thirst of India, China and the Third World, as well as most of the profits of the oil companies. The idea of bringing prices down by tapping our nation's 700 million barrel strategic petroleum reserves, supported by Rep. Steve Israel (D-Dix Hills) isn't a very good one, because it would do nothing to deal with the underlying issues. Besides, that's not what strategic reserves are for.

What we can control, alone and together, is our usage of oil, and our policies. Each of us could choose to drive economical vehicles, in economical ways, and if we all did so, the price of gas would plummet. Drive consumption just a bit below the supply, and a glut ensues.

We also control, through our votes and our voices, public policy that has never done much to make us get off oil, become more energy-efficient or drive the development of new energy sources.

The federal government spends between $5 billion and $6 billion per year to subsidize oil companies, and that amount ought to be zero. That same sum, spent to encourage the development of alternative fuels, the purchase of hybrid vehicles and the energy-saving retrofitting of homes, could improve the situation dramatically.

The path to reasonably priced energy is easy to see, but hard to follow. Act as if it's ridiculously expensive all the time, and it won't be. hN