Well, should we drill in the Arctic, the Everglades, get some more of our own oil and bring these horrific prices down? I don’t think so. We will only forget again.
I pumped gas in 1973. Overnight the price of gas went from 38 cents a gallon to an astronomical 75 cents a galloon. People panicked, Gas lines formed. I would arrive at work to see a six block line of cars waiting for me. Tempers were short. We could only give each car 10 gallons. People tried to bribe me, threaten me, beg me for more. I wasn’t a terribly principled person then. I would have probably given more to some people especially the ones who offered me ten or twenty bucks. “Just fill the tank up,”, they’d beg. But the person behind them always had their eye on the pump and would have turned me in, in a second. It was a lousy way to make a living. The only perk was getting to fill up my own car before the station opened without waiting in line.
Changes happened though. Cars got smaller. The Mustang was replaced with the Mustang II, a shadow of its former self. People started using mass- transit, riding bicycles. Cars went from 10 mpg to 20 and more.
Then slowly people forgot. Look at us just before this latest price hike. SUVs all over the road, new roads built instead of mass transit.
And now we start again. The SUVs are sitting on the lots. The car makers are all touting mileage. But in time we will forget again. And if we drill in fragile places we will ruin them forever for a few more years of low prices.
I pumped gas in 1973. Overnight the price of gas went from 38 cents a gallon to an astronomical 75 cents a galloon. People panicked, Gas lines formed. I would arrive at work to see a six block line of cars waiting for me. Tempers were short. We could only give each car 10 gallons. People tried to bribe me, threaten me, beg me for more. I wasn’t a terribly principled person then. I would have probably given more to some people especially the ones who offered me ten or twenty bucks. “Just fill the tank up,”, they’d beg. But the person behind them always had their eye on the pump and would have turned me in, in a second. It was a lousy way to make a living. The only perk was getting to fill up my own car before the station opened without waiting in line.
Changes happened though. Cars got smaller. The Mustang was replaced with the Mustang II, a shadow of its former self. People started using mass- transit, riding bicycles. Cars went from 10 mpg to 20 and more.
Then slowly people forgot. Look at us just before this latest price hike. SUVs all over the road, new roads built instead of mass transit.
And now we start again. The SUVs are sitting on the lots. The car makers are all touting mileage. But in time we will forget again. And if we drill in fragile places we will ruin them forever for a few more years of low prices.
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