Mark Winston Griffith

8 Dollar a Gallon Gas? Bring it on!

I want to say for the record that I revel in the high price of gas. Rather than joining those weak-kneed legislators intent on pandering to the voters by reducing fuel taxes or opposing a climate change bill that will raise fuel prices, I want Americans to be gouged. 6, 7, 8 bucks a gallon. I'm talking European prices.

Of course I don't actually want to see Americans suffer financial pain for its own sake. Nor do I want people who live outside of the handful of cities with efficient transit systems to be cut off from their jobs and other lifeline activities because they can't afford to fuel a car. I don't want to see people decide between eating and heating their homes in the winter. And perhaps the last thing I want to see is Exxon and the rest of the oil industry continuing their record-breaking profit binge.

But a financial intervention on a truly wallet crushing scale is the only thing that will force Americans to change it's gas-drunk culture (Full disclosure: I drive my family of four around in a Hyundai Tucson, a 24 mile to the gallon baby SUV) and get people to demand that our lawmakers get serious about ending our dependence on fossil fuels.

Maybe outrageous prices are the only thing that could possibly generate the political will to support policies that, while temporarily leading to higher prices at the pump, are in our greater social, environmental and economic best interests. Maybe higher fuel prices will spark a populist rebellion against the oil companies and lead us to embrace the development of a new green era in American life.

Maybe financial pain is the only thing that can help us get it through our thick Homo sapen skulls that human civilization can consume itself right out of existence.

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Posted at 1:03 AM, Jun 04, 2008 in Economy
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