You should be Thankful for Expensive Gas...

Day in, and day out, one can't but hear the rampant caterwauling about the astronomical price of gas. Rising energy prices may be the one issue whose purview extends to nearly all of our society, so I guess it shouldn't be surprising that one hears so much about the problem.

From pro boxer Kelly Pavlik stating that his fan contingent was small at his last fight because they couldn't afford the drive from Youngstown to Atlantic City, to Larry King "breaking the story" about US Airways pressuring their pilots to conserve their prohibitively expensive gas, even at the expense of safety, the negative aspects of pricey energy are omnipresent. Given the disparate nature of the problem, it's unsurprising that these stories thus receive such play in our mainstream media.

This is important, because the utmost lesson to be learned from the present gas prices is ultimately a positive one. Prohibitively high energy prices, as we currently are experiencing, are the only way to finally wean the United States off of oil. The combination of an innate American ethos that embraced "the open road" and the anti-conservation policies (couched in the rhetoric of "individual rights") by Republican politicians and oil company executives (some individuals indubitably served in both capacities, see Cheney, Richard) ensured that any sort of alternative energy source would be squelched in it's infancy.

For the better part of a century, the fact that gas cost a pittance allowed Americans to blithely ignore the environmental degradation that rampant driving causes. In addition, the impetus for energy policy reform, one that would undoubtedly include considerable sacrifices, was nonexistent during the era of cheap oil.

Luckily, 5 dollar gas solves both of those problems. The notion that gas will always be cheap, and therefore, free for excessive use, is proven wholly illusory. On the other hand, the GOP and Exxon Mobil's board of directors decision to put forth the absurd notion that offshore drilling will magically serve as the panacea to high gas prices will be exposed for the sophistry it is in due time. Just like the public rejected the McCain/Clinton plan to both suspend the gas tax or institute a federal gas tax holiday, so too will they ultimately see through the specious reasoning that more drilling leads to lower gas prices.

Some might decry the notion that 5 dollar gas is beneficial as purely elitist and therefore ignorant of the concerns of the "common man", given that millions of lower income families are receiving the brunt of the financial blow.

That reasoning is invalid for two reasons. First of all, 5 dollar gas is not going away anytime soon, and implementing piecemeal solutions, as Republicans who advocate for drilling are ostensibly doing, will have negligible impact on the prices in the short term, and therefore provide hardly any relief for imperiled consumers. Secondly, it will not be the elites of society, but rather the average person whose life will be irreparably changed by the transition from oil to a new energy source, and delaying it in the name of ineffective reforms will only prolong the pain and sacrifice of the overall switch.

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One way to alleviate the angst and trouble associated with the societal upheaval and transformation that will occur as we transition away from oil would be to educate and inform the citizens about the importance of long term thinking. If done properly, the need for arduous policy battles in Washington would be accelerated, and the now anachronistic notion that oil is a part of our future would be vitiated.

It is incumbent on the progressive community to demand that the media confront the general public with the uncomfortable realities of 2008 vis a vis future energy policy. Al Gore took a wonderful first step in doing so with his speech yesterday outlining specific policy goals for becoming fossil fuel free in the next 10 years. It's time to take that a step forward: Making our economy, and by extension, way of life, bereft of fossil fuels in the next 10 year is no longer merely a boutique option reserved for bleeding heart environmentalists. Rather, the ideas enunciated by Gore are imperative if America wants to remain a relevant, vital and prosperous country.

Instilling that sobering reality into the consciousness of the average American is difficult, but the existence of 5 dollar gas has helped greatly to crystallize that notion. We must now take it a step further, find a way to show the benefits to the country, through the media, of instigating the legislation and cooperation needed to make it a reality. The perspicacity that 5 dollar gas "affords" us towards achieving that goal, is why the current high price of gas will ultimately be a saving grace for this country.