You know, I have to give it up to America.

We, the people, held out on curbing gas use until it hit around $3.61 a gallon. Now that's commitment! And I have to say, a pretty piss-poor compromise, as we're dieting to the tune of less than one percent of our 'normal' gas intake. That's like the fat girl who swears off icing but still eats the whole damn cake.

Still, you can see that we're trying to adjust, albeit only a little, to the new, high-gas-price reality. Small cars are selling briskly, while SUVs are rusting on the lot. If I were still driving a car, I'd wish that it were the early 1990s...when gas was cheap, and most importantly, when we, the people had more small car choices in the 30-40 mpg range. Remember the Geo Metro?

That was when our memories were longer, and the pain of peak oil and OPEC was fresher in our minds. Because it really annoys me, to listen to folks talking about the gas price issue, the global warming issue and ignoring the peak oil issue...like we all haven't heard this before.

Well, actually, I hadn't heard it all before, as I was just a baby. But our parents and grandparents? Our policy-makers and car manufacturers? Our scientists and energy geniuses? It's deja vu to them.

Let's start with peak oil. In plain English, peak oil is the point where 1/2 of all of the oil in a given field is reached, and then the field falls into decline. Declining production in an oil field means that slurping out the rest of the oil is a harder task...and there's less of it to get, despite the fact that the peak production has driven up demand waaaaay past supply.

Peak oil, as applied to an entire country's oil resources, is the point when all of the oil fields have hit their maximum daily output. They've ramped up from 0 to 50%, and will now fall in production from 50% to 0 again. This is exactly what happened in the United States, when oil production peaked in the 1970s. Combined with hostility from OPEC, gas prices shot through the roof, people bought Hondas, and Nixon announced "Project Independence," among other things.

This was all to cure the US of our 'addiction to oil.' Whew, I guess that's solved!

Oh. Wait.

As it turns out, the 1980s brought a massive amount of oil production online, dropped the price dramatically, and ended our love affair with 'energy independence.' It took a little longer for the car industry to catch up, but sprint they did, trading out smaller cars for station wagons disguised as tough trucks. And now, oil demand is climbing, production is declining, the earth is warming...

...and we're doing nothing.

Yup. We, the people, en masse, are basically doing zip, zero, ziltch to combat this massive problem. Oh sure, we might be trading in our SUVs for hybrids...but we're not trading in cars altogether...or even considering that as an option. At present, we have hybrids and one hydrogen powered car on the market. We're talking up ethanol powered cars, plug-in electric cars and other innovative ways to keep us driving...

...but shouldn't some of us stop driving in the first place?

Now, to be fair, for most places around the country, that's flat-out impossible without a loss of dignity or cleanliness. Plus, in most of the country, mass transit runs infrequently and nowhere of interest...so I can't blame y'all for choosing $4 gas over the ass-end of transport.

But...isn't this our country? Don't we, the people, have the right to demand better? Sadly, most folks just don't want better mass transit...that's for poor people (or if you're in the South: minorities 'gasp!') They just want oil to drop in price (good luck: see China, India and the rest of the world rising.) Or they want that impossible trifecta of power, size and endless fuel economy (good luck: see the laws of physics.)

What's astonishing is that most people don't see the other side of the coin; a drop in the quality of life the car sometimes brings. For example, the DC-Baltimore Metropolitan Statistical Area has about 8.5 million people. About 1 million of them use mass transit...so like 10 percent or so (which, insanely, makes us the second most used subway system in the entire country. At 10 percent!) Now, the mass transit peeps are kind of locked into locales off the transit system, as WMATA has holes in its coverage. But we're not trapped in DC's horrid traffic. And I'm from South Florida, where mass transit is non-existent...and the traffic there utterly sucks. A ten-minute trip can take nearly an hour (and you have no choice BUT to drive.)

Don't even get me started on Atlanta. 

But, we're really doing nothing about it. DC might be (because people actually use the Metro,) but not enough and not fast enough. So I have a Marshall Plan for our power and transit needs.

1. Build nuclear power plants. I know the argument against them, and frankly...it's absurd. We, the people, do tons of things that are 'bad' for us, or could perhaps harm us. How many fucking Chicken McNuggets have fallen into the gullets of most Americans? But...nuclear power can power us up, with minimal pollution, maximum power and drastically reduce our dependence on coal. Besides, we may need the coal to turn into oil at some point.

2. Cars must get no less than 45 miles per gallon, and produce zero emissions. Non-negotiable. Drive slower and smaller.

3. Critical mass urban areas must be infused with massive funding to shore up their mass transit systems. Did you know that DC's Metrorail is the second most used subway in the United States? And that the overall transit mix is #3? Sounds impressive, until you realize that the Capital Region has about 8.5 million people and only 10 percent use mass transit. 10 percent. Mind you, 10 percent basically creams nearly every other city in the country. An electrical grid powered by nuclear energy, paired to mass transit...produces no emissions. Plus, (and this is where DC is just nucking futs,) human traffic is far more bearable than auto traffic.

4. There is to be no further build-out into the countryside. "Atlanta" is 15 counties and growing, for fuck's sake! You either live in the city, or you live in the country. And in the city, we have density. You don't get a new county to develop until you hit a certain 'per square mile' marker.

5. All paved parking lots must be converted to garages with parks, trees, crops, etc next to the damn parking garage.

6. Plug in the damn cars already!

 

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