The demand for basic needs in all countries, particularly those with high human density, is not always satisfied, however. Lacking access to basic resources, starvation, malnutrition and an array of associated diseases and maladies plague the people of many nations. Poor resource management and ignorance results in heart-wrenching conditions, where people are drinking water containing parasites, human waste, and who, as a result, have exceedingly high death rates. It would seem that in comparison with human conditions in many parts of the world, the challenge of resource management in civilized societies is much less demanding. We “civilized” peoples are indeed fortunate — in many ways. While we are complaining about gas prices to fuel multiple automobiles in a single family, others are eating beetles and drinking chemically contaminated water.
Western nations suffer no shortage of advocates for improved global ecology. We are indeed fortunate to have Nobel laureates who constantly warn us about such earth changing events as global warming — and it has fallen to them to lecture everyone else about the dangers of fossil fuels and the very existence of humankind. I believe, however, that it is difficult for the starving Ethiopian family to give much thought to melting ice caps, even if it were true that such an event suddenly flooded the world’s coastal areas and killed millions. There are so many ways to die; drowning isn’t the most painful. The Nigerian parent who buries two out of an average of six children before the age of one-year doesn’t see the absurdity of Albert Gore’s gas-guzzling SUV, or his private jet aircraft, or John Edwards multi-million square foot home in rural North Carolina.
That life isn’t a bowl of cherries should not surprise anyone — not even in the United States where thousands of homeless people tax the services of urban governments, and where in spite of America’s wealth children are still undernourished and uncared for by their parents. But even this isn’t what concerns Americans most; it is the price of gasoline. So let’s talk about that . . .
Nearly every aspect of our society places a demand on this resource. Airline industries, commercial vehicles of every size or kind, public owned conveyances, and privately owned vehicles. From a time when the average American family owned one automobile, we now have families with four automobiles — a significant increase in demand in just one sector of society. Aircraft require specialized fuels, most commercial tractors and buses use diesel, and our government wants our cars to run on ethanol. Each product requires its own distillation processing, so to say that “increased” demand is the problem over-simplifies the issue. Oil refineries simply cannot produce enough gas in its many variants to meet demand.
Today, oil and gas producers are working with the same facilities they had 30 years ago. An intelligent person might then ask, “Why haven’t these plants been upgraded to meet “demand?” Actually, there are several reasons:
Government policy has reduced oil refinement capacity. The Clean Air Act of 1990 and 1997 mandated a reduction of processing emissions — so oil companies closed refineries to meet government’s mandates.
Currently, there are seventeen separate fuels produced in order to meet government demand for air pollution reduction plans. With three different grades of fuel for each type produced, there are presently 50 separate blends of fuel — each one has a separate refinement process, and each type of gasoline requires its own transportation, so these costs have increased as well.
In 2005, Congress mandated the annual production of 8 billion gallons of ethanol fuels, a further increase in cost in both gasoline and food. At present, the Senate wants to increase ethanol production to 36 billion gallons annually. Tighten up, America — here it comes again.
So while it would appear that there are natural shortages of oil, our Congress could be our greatest impediment to an adequate supply of oil, its cost, and ultimately, a clean environment. If there was less government interference, refinement capacity would increase, the cost of fuel would decrease, and air quality would improve. Without government restrictions, oil companies could better afford improved clean air technologies. According to studies conducted by the National Center for Policy Analysis, air quality has substantially improved over the past 40 years — but such improvements have come to us in spite of Congress, not because of them. Congressional air quality standards, based on exaggerated rather than realistic concerns, hinder rather than foster technological improvements among American industries.
Now that the price of gasoline has surpassed $4.00 per gallon at some American locations, I was thinking that the reader ought to send a “thank you note” to members of Congress for all of their outstanding work. Failing that, you might want to vote them out of office the next time you have that opportunity. I don’t know about you — but I know Congress gives me gas.
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