Building Our Lives On Unstable Ground

With the recent gas shortages here in Alpharetta, a lot of stations have been out of gas or have run out quickly. Lines have spilled out onto the roads around the stations disrupting traffic. Luckily I have not had to wait in very long lines to fill my car with gas the past few weeks (because I go at 5:30 am), but I still can’t help worrying if I am going to be able to find more gas when I need it next.

A lot of people in Alpharetta are probably filling up so they can drive down to Atlanta 5 days a week with themselves as the only passenger. This is a remarkably inefficient and expensive way to commute even in the days of cheap abundant gas. I have yet to hear anything from our government or news media about conserving the precious amounts of gas that we are getting now and how our supplies in the future will be affected by hurricanes and increasing world demand for oil. Here is what they did tell us to do though:

• Drive sensibly: Speeding, rapid acceleration (jackrabbit starts), and rapid braking lowers gas mileage.
  
• Choose the right vehicle: If you own more than one vehicle, drive the one that gets better gas mileage whenever possible.
  
• Decrease speed: Gas mileage decreases rapidly when driving more than 60 miles-per-hour.
• Avoid idling: Idling gets zero miles per gallon. Cars with larger engines waste more gas while idling than cars with smaller engines.
  
• Inflate your tires: Keeping tires properly inflated improves gas mileage.
  

These steps will save a little fuel, but not nearly enough to deal with the current shortage. Long-term steps are not being taken to help prevent this happening in the future. In fact, our government actually wants to increase our exposure to gasoline supply disruptions in the future by letting the ban expire on offshore drilling (the new oil platforms and the refineries to go along with them will be at great danger of being hit by one of these hurricanes that are occurring more frequently and with greater intensity), providing larger subsidies to oil companies than to producers of renewable energy, and letting our public transportation infrastructure decay due to insufficient funding.

How can you help prevent gasoline shortages from affecting your daily life in the future? Drive less. Talk to your employer about telecommuting, setting up a carpool system, providing incentives to take alternative transportation, or switching to a four day work week. Support alternative transportation by using what public transport systems we have left, walking or biking to places close to your home, and talking to friends and neighbors to build awareness.

Photo credit: Flickr - Lisa Pisa