$100.00 a barrel! Oil has broken the imaginary line. It is expensive. Filling up the car, heating the house and a lot of other costs just went up. It is hard to imagine the price going any higher right? Wrong. China is expected to have nearly 100 million middle income households by 2010. The more Chinese that reach that imaginary line, where income is just enough to allow for luxuries, the more pressure there is going to be on oil prices. China is growing and there is little that can be done to stop it. Their thirst for resources is second only to the United States. Middle class America had better be prepared for $200.00 a barrel. Our resource consumption habits have to change. If the decision between driving to work and buying groceries is hard at a $100.00, let’s see how that choice is at $150.00. What can we do to help ourselves? The individual consumer can do these three things to start helping today: 1) buy a car that gets good gas mileage for short-term relief and make smarter consumption choices; 2) lobby your government representatives for a huge government led research project on alternative fuels; 3) and invest in alternative fuel companies.
We have all heard, recycle, over and over again. We hear it, yet, we ignore it. The United States is decades behind Europe in its recycling efforts. We need to fix that. The less new plastics we create the less use of fresh oil. Simple math, reduce demand, reduce prices. Also, individual consumers should take advantage of any tax break available and invest in alternative heating or energy sources for their household. Use solar power to heat your hot water, use wind to generate some electricity, or find some other renewable form of energy. Face it, solar power is expensive to implement at first, but the cost, as oil continues to rise is making alternative sources comparable. Finally, for short-term relief from the gas price, find a car that gets good gas mileage. If your vehicle of choice gets less than 20-miles-per-gallon, ditch it. You may say that you cannot afford the cost of a newer car, but start looking at your monthly gas bills. If you have a vehicle that gets say 13 miles-to-the-gallon, and you trade it in for one that gets 26 miles-to-the-gallon, you just cut your gas bill in half. You do not need an SUV to haul yourself into work or pick up one-or-two kids from school. It is your wallet, but your choices are hurting all Americans at the pump.
Now I am not naive, a temporary reduction of demand from getting a smaller car may help for a while it is not the answer. A short-term dip in prices will just allow China and other nations to get more for their money too. Strategically America has to find other ways to satisfy our energy demands. As a consumer, more so as a citizen, you can petition to your representatives at the local level, state level and federal level. The United States needs a program, on the scale of the Apollo program or the Manhattan project, to find a better solution to our energy needs. There is no doubt that we can do it. We just need to fund the research whole heartedly and let our brightest minds attack the issue. Eliminate our addiction to oil and the world will change. Our reliance on the Middle East would be gone.
Getting the government to act can be a daunting task to say the least. That is why American’s need to start the process with or without the government. Everyone should allocate a certain percentage of their investment portfolio to companies researching alternative fuels. While it is an investment that is good for the environment, it is also an investment that will pay hard cash if the company succeeds. Do your research and invest in a promising technology. Every little bit of cash flow a company can get to assist with research and development costs helps. All it takes is one successful idea, one. Investors in the company that finds that one idea will be very happy with the increase in stock prices, very happy.
Everyone can complain about the cost of gas. It hurts, no doubt there, but complaining never fixes anything. Americans have to add action. Making personal changes, lobbying the government, and investing wisely in companies that want to find alternative fuels are three steps that everyone can take to help. Americans need a more reliable source of energy and more reliable producers of that energy. The Middle East, Russia and South America are not the places we should rely on for our nation’s very life blood. If we continue to rely on them we will be forced into more military conflicts as demand further outpaces production. It is up to us. We elect the government. We need to make the choices and take the actions.
Geno A Bulzomi
http://www.bulzomi.com
Articles on International Affairs, Leadership and Business.
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