Gas Archives - A Father of Twin Boys

When my dad started driving, the cost of gas was $0.16 a gallon. When I started driving, the cost of gas was $0.89 a gallon. Today, 20 years later, the cost of gas is between $3.50 – $4.00 plus, depending on where you live, with a national average of $3.66 a gallon. So what has changed?

This article does a great job of summing up the reason, read here. But the bigger question is not why, but what are we going to do about it? The reality comes down to two things, 1) oil speculators and 2) alternative sources of fuel.

Until there is additional restrictions placed on the oil speculators, the price of gas is going to be in a state of influx and more importantly, will remain high. And fuel alternatives have been in the works for years, bu the demand has not reached the point for car companies to build a mass quantity of cars that will run on fuel alternatives. Hybrids have not taken off as economists expected. Natural gas is an interesting alternative, which has a lot of potential, however, there are not enough natural gas stations, which causes a problem. And then there is always the always unpopular idea of drilling in the Anwr in Alaska. This would take time to get setup and running, but read here the benefits.

Bottom line, something has to be done. Regardless of what your political beliefs are, an alternative has to be created, because higher gas prices are and will continue to have an effect on our cost of goods. Which in return, means less money in your pocket and less for your family.

Have you seen the news lately? Analysts are predicting $4.15 – $5.00 a gallon gas prices. So how does this affect you? Well, it is a chain of events.

1) Gas Prices rise.
2) Businesses pass along the higher charges to the consumer because the are losing money on their higher gas prices.
3) Food prices will rise.
4) People will not travel as much, thus the number of people taking vacations will decrease.
5) Because less people travel, the need for seasonal jobs will decrease because the demand is not there. Or companies can not afford to pay as much because of the higher gas prices and lay people off.
6) And unemployment rises again.

To give real numbers, here is what it will cost my family based on the following early projected gas prices for a fill-up. And my wife and I each fill-up at least one time a week, sometimes twice a week. Because of these projected numbers, we will have to sit down as a family and make decisions on future trips and really look at the cost benefit of traveling out of state and maybe even out of town.

Gallons	Gas Prices at $4.15	Gas Prices at $5.00
My SUV 16 gallons	$66.40	$80.00
My wife’s SUV 15 gallons	$62.25	$75.00

See the trend here? Gas prices rising will only hurt our economy, plain and simple. And normally, I wouldn’t get on a soap box about gas prices, except for 1 primary reason and that is, there isn’t a logical reason as to why the prices are that high. And no, I am not one of those that believe that we should cut off our oil dependency immediately and go to electric cars. And I don’t because the technology in my opinion is not refined to the point that the number of cars can be put out on the roads and maintained if there are problems.

Do we need to look at alternatives to oil, absolutely. But, we also need to drill and harvest the oil that we can control and not be so sufficient on overseas oil. Until then, our gas prices will continue to rise, as the demand is greater than the supply. Though I did hear that the demand for oil has sifted from the US to India and China, which I thought was pretty interesting.

From what I have read, the Keystone Pipeline would have increased jobs by 20,000,and increased oil so that we never have to import another drop of oil and the current administration rejected the project. Sometimes I wonder if politicians forget why they were elected and allow the political game to become the focal point and not the voters that elected them to office.

Here is a crazy idea, let’s do what is best for the residents of the US and not what is best politically. $5.00 a gallon for gas, is not and will not help this struggling economy.