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Terri Mitchell, 36, of Clinton Township fills up her GMC Envoy XL in Clinton Township. Critics say SUV sales relied on cheap gas to thrive.Reality deflates cheap gas addiction
U.S. should downsize its cocky gas-guzzling attitude, embrace discipline
Prices for regular unleaded gasoline in Metro Detroit have remained above $2.50 a gallon for more than a month. The highest price in the region was $3.20 a gallon on Sept. 3.Error processing SSI file
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Let's face it -- America's cheap gasoline days are over.
Cheap gas, which came with a heavy environmental price tag, was close to the end of its natural life even before hurricanes Katrina and Rita. But these two horrific hurricanes, showing supreme indifference to the cocky confidence of the world's most powerful country, finished off cheap gas in a matter of weeks.
Like an ugly tattoo discovered on our right forearm after a night of revelry, higher gas prices are announcing that America's oil binge is nearly over.
An angry public, paying shockingly high prices at the gas pumps, is asking how we got ourselves in such a mess. The full story is complex, but a lot of our lack of preparedness boils down to Attitude, with a capital A.
Americans have always had a lot of confidence. Our nation's extra measure of attitude fueled great innovations and the entrepreneurial spirit to build the most prosperous country in human history. It was attitude that made America extend itself to a prostrate Europe with the Marshall Plan after World War II and fall in love with President John Kennedy's dream to put a man on the moon.
Attitude fuels arrogance
But somewhere we crossed the line thinking our successes would "wow" the rest of the world to follow the United States' lead into unbridled consumerism, our kind of democracy and a war of uncertain purposes in Iraq. In recent years, we suffered from so much attitude, we thought the United States was exempt from the rules of economics, the laws of physics and the forces of nature. Until the hurricanes.
Our economic hubris led us to elect an administration that insists our government can perpetually spend more money than it brings in. "Borrow from our children" is how some people characterize America's rampant deficit spending.
But the truth is, we're borrowing mostly from China, not our children. It's China that's loaning us much of the money to feed our appetite for cheap goods, our war in Iraq and tax cuts for the wealthiest among us.
A lot of good jobs are being lost and gas prices are soaring as the Chinese economy demands a greater share of the world's limited supply of oil. Should we blame China or take responsibility for our own attitude that set up this costly scenario?
In Michigan, it's especially clear how attitude ignored the laws of physics. Detroit has been building top-heavy sport utility vehicles that give drivers an added sense of power by riding high over the rest of the world. Never mind that SUVs are prone to rollover accidents, so heavy they threaten people in normal-sized cars and burn gas at double, triple or quadruple the rate of the most efficient vehicles.
SUVs top heavy with attitude
Once Detroit's automakers figured out how they could take advantage of previously cheap gas, simple laws of physics weren't allowed to stand in the way of multibillion-dollar advertising campaigns that fueled America's taste for these machines.
SUVs, after all, are the essence of attitude. And Michigan politicians of both parties gave Detroit every bit of cover they wanted with special legal exemptions for these attitude vehicles.
As to the forces of nature, for too long most of America couldn't be bothered with scientists' alerts to global warming. Certainly the Bush administration and trade organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers and American Petroleum Institute weren't about to make any concessions to the demands of "old countries" for conservation measures in the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
American industry and politicians didn't like what scientists were saying, so they called it "junk science" and found some outlier Ph.D.s to offer alternative theories.
That's attitude. And that's what lots of money, political power and a gutless minority party can get -- for a while.
Economics and nature rule
Eventually, however, the rules of economics, laws of physics and forces of nature do rule. The hurricanes left our petroleum industry staggering. But even when the breaks in our drilling and refining capacities are mended, we'll not see cheap gasoline again. With the world's economy demanding ever more fuel and the peak of global oil production soon upon us, pumping more oil to meet increasing demand will no longer be possible.
Even with attitude, the United States will not be able to repeal the law of supply and demand.
If our country is to regain its footing and secure a familiar quality of life for most Americans, we'll need a little less attitude and a lot more discipline, innovation and respect for reality.
Lana Pollack is president of the Michigan Environmental Council in Lansing. Mail letters to The News, Editorial Page, 615 W. Lafayette, Detroit, MI 48226, or fax them to (313) 222-6417 or e-mail them to letters@detnews.com.
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