Published: May 02, 2008 11:15 pm         

Conservation is a way to control cost of gas

Now that gasoline is approaching $4 per gallon politicians are beginning to propose legislation to control the free-market trade in oil, to suspend gas taxes and to release our country’s strategic oil reserves. They are all rolling the wrong oil drum.

What is needed now, and for the coming decades, is a national policy to conserve oil supplies. Without conservation, motorists and industry will simply consume all the oil that is produced, no matter what the price is.



Some oil supply experts believe we have now hit the peak in pumping production of the worldwide oil reserves. In other words, no matter what we do, from now on demand will outpace supply. If that scenario is beginning, then gasoline prices will continue to rise ad infinitum.

The only hope now to contain the rising price of gasoline and oil is to conserve our present supply stream. That will mean penalizing heavy consumers in some manner or rewarding consumers who purchase fuel-efficient vehicles and power equipment. Either-or-tactics can be used to trim the nation’s insatiable appetite for oil.

We bring this topic up today because this week U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly (R-2nd District) said he is co-sponsoring a bill to regulate after-hours over-the-counter trading of oil. Donnelly claims that such regulations will reduce the cost of gasoline. Rep. Donnelly means well, but he is missing the point. Even if severe restrictions are placed on American market speculators, no such restrictions will be placed on foreign consumers. That means China and India, which are becoming industrial powerhouses, will continue to purchase as much oil as they wish.



Oil is a global commodity that is in high demand. It is the liquid that builds nations, and without it countries remain stuck in an 1800s economy.

The only way to think our way out of this problem is to conserve the oil reserves now known, switch some energy consumption to renewable fuels or nuclear energy and change our driving habits.

Without a nationally mandated conservation program, the cost of oil will rise forever and that inflationary influence will play havoc with our economy.