I was driving to work today and I noticed that gas prices had skyrocketed to $2.39 per gallon. I know that's not that high relative to the price in other parts of the nation, but still, for Oklahoma, "oil capital of the world," it's a ton.
I'm of two minds on this subject. On the one hand, high gas prices are good in that hopefully people will be prodded into buying hybrids or other fuel-efficient cars rather than SUVs. I have a little tiny Mazda sedan and it costs me $30 to fill up my tank--I can't imagine what it must cost someone with a Hummer. Meanwhile everyone who owns a Prius right now is thanking their lucky stars and laughing at all of us pouring our hard-earned money into our gas tanks.
On the other hand, high gas prices hurt working class people more than anyone else, especially working class people here in Oklahoma, where public transportation options are limited at best. If you can't afford to buy gas for your car, and you can't afford to buy a hybrid, and you can't take the bus to work, what are you supposed to do? Walk?
The truth of the matter is that we're running out of dead dinosaurs, and nothing we can do, not drilling in ANWR, not invading every oil-producing country in the Middle East, not cracking open our own reserves, is going to change that. We're going to have to change how we do things in a major way soon, and it's going to hurt. High gas prices are just the beginning.
