Gas Shortages, Gas Prices, Dependence on Foreign Oil, Solutions outside the box

Like many of you reading this article, I have cut back on the nonessential activities that would consume gasoline. In my neck of the woods, mid-range unleaded is bouncing around between $2.80 and $3.25 per gallon. My friends and acquaintances, all middle-class types, are doing the same thing. To be perfectly honest, our intentions are not so noble as to save the planet, but rather cut our expenses. I can only imagine that all across middle-class America, other folks are doing the same thing. It even appears, according to the most recent news reports, that our non-voluntary boycott has reduced demand adequately to stop the price of gas from spiking upward.

High Gas Prices

The problem of gas costing Americans in the neighborhood of $3.00 per gallon is so serious, that even the Federal Government has gotten involved. And I've heard a lot from them since they jumped into the fray. To distill it down, they are upset, and sorry, and feel our pain, committees, discussions, and they intend to do something about it – soon! I have been hearing this for some time now – and yet there have been no actions taken that have really alleviated the problem.

Now, like you, I know that we pay a lot of tax for each gallon of gas we buy. And I also understand that the Federal Government controls the collection of those taxes. I also know that the American people are really upset about all the exorbitant oil company profits. Almost nobody realizes that the tax profits have been much more than what the oil companies are making . The point is, if the Federal Government really wanted to offer the American people relief at the pumps, they could have drastically reduced, or maybe even temporarily eliminated the gas taxes.

But let's assume that tax relief is, for some reason(s) unknown to this writer, utterly out of the question. Are there any alternative actions the Federal Government could instigate that would reduce the demand for gas, which would then drop the price per gallon at the pumps. Well, since nobody else seems to have any workable solutions, I'll toss my humble ideas into the ring.

The first idea is to immediately close all schools one day per week. This is to say, create a 4-day school week. By doing this, the hundreds of millions of gallons of gas used for the purposes of transporting schoolchildren on each school day would be saved. This includes not only the fuel-hungry school buses that transport larger numbers of kids, but all of the privately owned vehicles that are used for that purpose as well. Then there's the savings accrued by not operating the school buildings and vehicles for one day per week.

School Bus

There are many ways to accomplish the above. For example, the schools in Florida and Washington would be closed on day one, and then the buses in New York and California would be closed on day two, and so forth. Even if the Federal Government only orchestrated the closing of all schools in two or three states every day, national fuel consumption would drop quite noticeably, thereby causing prices to drop. If all schools in the nation would close one day per month, and all the other days only two states per day closed, that would make an amazing difference.

Let's not put everything off on the Federal Government. The state and city governments can do things as well.

Take public transportation, for example. I am not a transportation engineer, but I do drive the streets of the city where I live, and I have noticed something disturbing – at least in this age of $50+ tank fill-ups. I notice that those huge public buses are all but empty – almost all of the time. Granted, there are a couple I've seen full – and doubtless every medium-large city in the US has those bus routes and times that do get lots of citizens using them. Public transportation systems need to go through some serious fat-trimming operations. Using smaller buses and redoing the route schedules would be a nice start that would doubtless save oodles of fuel.

Closing down all nonessential services (and buildings) one day per week is something else that cities and states could address. Road maintenance and road construction are not essential. If you are thinking to yourself that the condition of the roads where you live is already bad enough (potholes, faded paint, etc.), and that you don't want the city to lose a day of working on them – then I'd suggest that you think again. Cities never get all of the maintenance done anyway, and maybe forcing them to trim down would eliminate that peculiarity of road workers that we all make fun of. You know the one: where there are five guys working on filling a small pothole – one guy is shoveling asphalt into the hole, one guy is tamping it down, and three guys are leaning on shovels watching. In any event, there's lots of waste to be trimmed in this area – and much of it would conserve fuel.

Now for the big one, but this would take some time to implement. Just suppose that the Federal Government orchestrated, and supported, via tax relief programs, the instigation of the 4-day work week? Sound crazy? It's not. Yes, there would be changes – but the gas savings would go off the charts. If you've ever been trapped in rush hour traffic at the top of a major city 'spaghetti bowl,' you can see thousands and thousands of cars sitting, burning fuel — and going nowhere. This can't be avoided on work days, but if we eliminated all that waste for just one day per week, we'd dramatically reduce our dependence on foreign oil, help our environment stay cleaner, and pocket substantial savings at the pump in no time.

Gas Refinery

If we want to have plenty of gas at the pumps, and we want to see the cost of fuel drop appreciably, we, as individuals, must accept that we cannot do it by ourselves. It will take an organizational effort. We already have the organizations in place – we call them "the government." Now, all we need to do is get them to start doing something about the problem. Something besides appointing people to review the problem to find answers. Something besides promising relief that never comes. Something besides the typical political rhetoric. The answers are here for the taking. Now, someone please take one!

Gas Shortages – Gas Prices – Dependence on Foreign Oil – Supply & Demand Solutions outside the box

Gas Shortages – Gas Prices – Dependence on Foreign Oil – Supply & Demand
Solutions outside the box