As oil prices teeter above $112 a barrel, I have heard recent debates about how the high prices are good for the environment. I have been in debates about this in the past, and while people might consume less oil, it is such a wrong way to go about it.
A couple of years ago, after Katrina and oil prices spiked, I got into a debate on a forum with a west coast liberal about the high oil prices. She insisted how it was good for the environment and needed to be done. As a Midwest liberal, I can safely say that is a very bad way to handle the over consumption of oil. Why? Because it hits the people it shouldn’t – the middle and lower class.
Countless cities and states around the country are suffering financially. Think about all the fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, school buses, road repair trucks, etc. that your city and state operate. They are having to fill those vehicles up with this high dollar gas. That means other things end up being cut, or the use of those vehicles end up getting cut. “Sorry Mr. and Mrs. Jones, but your child now has to walk the two miles to school. We can no longer afford bus service”. Don’t think that happens? It happened here back after the Katrina oil price surge.
How about the family that already has to work two jobs just to stay in their home? Now they are paying a lot more to get to and from those two jobs. A medical emergency hits and their child needs special medical care. They don’t have the money to take care of that child, simply because the money that was once there is now in the gas tank.
There seems to be a major disconnect between the coasts and middle of this country when it comes to this point. One of the great excuses I hear from coastal liberals is “take public transportation”. One big problem with that – what public transportation? We don’t have it where I live, and a lot of middle America doesn’t have public transportation.
Another argument is to use alternate transportation, like walk or bike. This one really pains me, as an avid biker, but there are also problems in that. Take people who live in rural areas. They might live 20 or 30 miles from work, or even the nearest store. Are they expected to walk or peddle that far? Unless you ride regularly, I would not advise it. During the summer I can ride 40-50 miles a day without much problem, but this time of year my trips are generally 10 miles a day. After the winter biking hibernation, it takes time to get back in condition. Peddling 30 miles when you haven’t rode in years, and out of a reason of need is the wrong answer.
The final argument I hear, that really gets under my skin, is that people in the U.K. pay a lot more than we do. Again the entire facts aren’t looked at. In the U.K. a majority of what they pay at the pumps go into taxes. Those taxes are earmarked for things like public services, and public transportation. Here, the higher gas prices mean higher profits for the oil company. The extra money isn’t dumped back into the system. If we had a system like the U.K., where people who couldn’t afford gas had plausible alternatives, then I would not have a problem at all paying these prices (or more) at the pump. But we don’t.
So to the liberals out there that think these high oil prices are good for the environment, this liberal asks that you rethink your position. Yeah people might not burn as much gas with higher prices, but the benefits are disproportionate to the negatives. The people with the big guzzling SUVs aren’t necessarily cutting back, it’s the average family struggling to survive. Unless we come up with a way to ensure decent public transportation for all the country, we can’t price middle America out of their vehicles. They are necessary for life.