Let the price of gasoline rise!

Editors, Asheville Global Report, Many people are concerned about the rising price of gasoline and it seems to be a central topic lately in the news. My take: let it rise! Cheap gas is one of the main reasons why we Americans use so much of it. It is definitely a major factor in our dependence on this dwindling commodity. Over in Europe where gas averages $7 a gallon, you find that people are more apt to use it sparingly (I spent 2005 living in the Netherlands.) The only way that we as a country are going to seriously start thinking about alternatives is if we simply can't afford gasoline anymore. That's the bottom line. Imagine what would happen if gas hit $7 a gallon here. Do you think people would still be filling up their gas-guzzling SUVs or riding a single person per car to work every morning? I seriously doubt it. The sad fact about us Americans is that we never want to change anything until we are forced to. We have to be hit hard in the face by the ugly truth before we are moved to act. It's taken the deaths of over 2,800 soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians to wake us up to the fact that this war is a mistake. It took a massive hurricane and the images of hundreds of thousands of poor people stranded for us to realize that we have to change the way we deal with crisis and our less fortunate. So, to use the words of George W... bring it on! We are going to have to realize the need for fuel alternatives the hard way I'm afraid. And while there are many of us who are already starting to make changes, most of us are still blissfully ignorant of the impending energy crisis. Hybrid cars are nice and all (I've just recently purchased one myself), but it's not enough. We have the technology to do better. But most Americans are creatures of habit, and until we are forced to clean out our bank accounts in order to drive our cars, we're not going to do a whole lot to change those habits.