The Price of Gas: “It’s Supply And Demand, Stupid!”
About the Author: I am an ex-urbanite who escaped the city life and has lived for the past 27 years in a rural, mountainous area of Virginia that in colonial and early-American times was part of the "Backcountry." Politics: Democrat by tradition, but moderate-to-conservative views on most issues; I fit the description of "traditionalist." Please visit my Web site, Backcountry Notes, at http://www.backcountrynotes.com/ Read more from this authorfrom a McCain Democrat’s Journal, July 8, 2008
Who am I calling stupid? Me, and any other McCain supporter who gets drawn into an argument with an Obama supporter about whose is at fault for the high price of gas. As they are intended to do, these arguments avoid discussions about what the problem is and how best to solve it.
The problem is supply and demand! The problem is that there is not enough fuel to meet our demands for it, presently or in the foreseeable future. The problem isn’t solved by debating how we got here; to some extent, we are all to blame. Nevertheless, the problem must be solved. If it is not, the result will be an economic collapse.
The Federal Highway Administration estimated that there were 250,851,833 registered passenger vehicles in the United States in 2006.
We simply don’t have 250,000,000 electric-powered cars and light trucks to replace vehicles powered by gasoline and diesel. If we did have 250,000,000 electric-powered cars and light trucks, we do not have the generating capacity to run them.
We simply don’t have 250,000,000 flex-fuel cars and light trucks to replace vehicles powered by gasoline and diesel. If we did have 250,000,000 flex-fuel cars and light trucks, we do not have the ethanol to run them.
Here’s an excerpt from a study by Worldwatch Institute:
Hybrid vehicles are generally seen as a key means to achieve higher fuel efficiency . . . . In 2007, a total of 541,000 hybrids were produced [worldwide]. PricewaterhouseCoopers projects that by 2015 some 2.2 million of these vehicles might be produced.
Toyota, the company that popularized such cars with the introduction of the Prius in 1997, in 2007 reached the milestone of a cumulative 1 million hybrids produced. The company sold half of these vehicles in the United States, where it commands a cumulative 73-percent share of the hybrid market . . . . By 2015, hybrids might reach a U.S. market share of anywhere between 5 and 11 percent.
The ramp-up of alternate-vehicle production would have to accelerate at an incredible rate to permit us to replace our passenger vehicle fleet in less than 20 years.
At this point in time, we are saddled with a quarter-billion passenger vehicles that run on petroleum products. Americans have cut out a substantial amount of driving due to higher prices, with miles driven dropping by 1.4 billion in one year, but there are limits.
America cannot phase out oil, coal, and nuclear power now, and expect that alternate fuels will appear and electricity will be generated magically. Barack Obama knows this; his proposition amounts to having millions of us suffer through a wrenching transition away from oil, coal, and nuclear power. John McCain’s plan has balance: produce more of our own oil, starting now; utilize more of our coal, starting now; build more nuclear power facilities, starting now; continue to encourage conservation; continue to encourage development of alternatives.
No contest - - McCain has a plan, Obama has a prescription for disaster.
Related posts:
Low On Gas, Speeding, and Asleep At The Wheel: Obamacrat Energy “Plan”
Obama’s Energy Plan: Changeless, Hopeless, Clueless
