Loyal readers of my columns (all three of them) may remember reading some of these words back in January, when gas was "only" $3.09 per gallon....
At $3.09 per gallon, politicians were doing nothing about higher gas prices. They were even saying nothing. The media, too. Nothing. But as we see gas prices rise toward the $3.50 level, we are starting to see stories about the fact that gas prices are high. Politiicans are starting to talk about it.
But I have said for a long time that Americans are willing to pay higher prices for gas. The question is: How much will you pay for gas? What is your price? At what amount will you start demanding a change in our national energy policy?
Whether you think invading Iraq was a mistake, or you think we should have finished Saddam Hussein in 1991…
Whether you think government is too big, or too small…
… I think you will agree with this column.
Or you will agree with me some day, when gas prices reach $4 per gallon again. Or $5. Or $6.
At some point –for me it was $2 – all Americans will say, “We need a new energy policy in our country, and we need it NOW.”
I’ve been saying that since the mid 1990s, when gasoline had yet to hit $1.50 per gallon.
We need a new energy policy, and we needed it now. Of course, we needed it in the 1970s. And the 80s. And the 90s.
And we still need it now.
If there is any thing (along with cancer research) that deserves government support through funding, laws and tax incentives, it’s energy. Every possible alternative – solar energy, wind power, ethanol – needs to be explored and implemented in the areas where it’s most efficient.
We have an inspiring example in Benton County, where Craig Stuart-Paul and his investors at Fiberight are trying to turn trash into ethanol. They are receiving some help from the Iowa Power Fund. And they should.
Did you know that if you make your own fuel (as some Iowans do), the State of Iowa requires you to pay taxes on your own fuel)? That is absurd. The state should be encouraging more of this – not taxing it.
I also think we need to re-invent the wheel. By this, I mean finding ways to use the energy that a car produces to create more energy. Yeah, it's possible. But no, it's not easy.
None of the changes I want are easy. That's why we need government and private individuals and corporations to cooperate on this issue.
But for the most part, we do not have that effort, that cooperation.
Why not?
If gas prices were at $4 – or $5 or $6 – a lot of people would be reading this column and saying, “He’s right. What’s wrong with us? Why haven’t we done more to make serious changes in our energy policy?”
But at $3.09 -- and it seems, at $3.49 -- gas prices are not high enough for most Americans to start asking that question.
My question is: At what price will you start asking it?
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