High gas prices: priming the pump

Driving less is great, but producing more oil is a less-desirable reaction 8

In this post, David echoes what seems to be conventional eco-wisdom on high gas prices:

It's good that gas prices are rising. We want people to buy more fuel-efficient cars and drive less.

I'm not so certain.

Sure, high prices will spur people to use less gas. But the incentives cut both ways: high prices also spur energy companies to produce more oil. And now that most of the world's easy-to-reach, easy-to-refine oil has already been put to the drill, high prices are making some seriously malevolent projects -- Canadian oil sands come to mind -- turn the corner from speculative boondoggles to respectable profit-centers.

My post here is way too longwinded, but eventually gets at the same point: energy companies are starting to give super-carbon-intensive projects, like shale oil and coal-based petroleum substitutes, a closer look. When oil's cheap, those sorts of things make no sense. When oil's pricey, they start to pencil out.

And more broadly, when oil prices rise, oil companies/monarchies get even richer -- which means they have even more weight to throw around. (Notice, for example, that pollutions safeguards were the first policy casualty of the latest price spike.)

Now, I'm not saying that gas should be cheaper at the pump -- and I'm with David in thinking that Americans might as well get used to paying more; there's not a whole lot that consumers can do right now, other than hope they live and work in places that don't require them to drive much.

But I am saying that enviros shouldn't think of high gas prices as a good substitute for high gas taxes. They seem like the same thing, but they're not; and I'm sure that there are plenty of oil company execs who hope that people lose sight of the distinction.

Clark Williams-Derry is research director for the Seattle-based Sightline Institute, a nonprofit sustainability think tank working to promote smart solutions for the Pacific Northwest. He was formerly the webmaster for Grist.

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  1. odograph Posted 12:09 am
    28 Apr 2006

    bothI think both things will happen (heck, we're already seeing it) as some people move to efficiency (hybrids, etc.) and others strive for fuel production in environmentally questionable ways (make room for more oil palms, and tar sand refineries).
    Environmentalists have the same job as always ;-), to praise the efficient and to protest the unwise.

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  2. PBrazelton Posted 12:26 am
    28 Apr 2006

    AgreedBoth of your posts make a good point, and I won't contradict them.  However, I think that the US's impact on the global oil market will be sliding into a dimished role in the next few decades.  While there's certainly plenty that can be done here and now, the Canadian oil sands WILL be mined and the region WILL be devastated by their processing.  I do not see a way around it.  The world wants what we have right now, and - short of an act of some diety - they're going to get it.

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  3. amazingdrx Posted 12:44 am
    28 Apr 2006

    And thishttp://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2006/04/bluegas_coal_to.html#comment-16668360
    Coal, tar, tar sands to methane, and methane to methanol becomes economically feasible.
    And this process traps all the contaminants like sulfur and mercury.  But it won't cut CO 2 unless it's done with renewable energy and the CO 2 is recycled with the algae process.
    Of course once it is producing fuel and natural gas no one will care anymore about CO 2.  Oh well, it is a hopeless battle.  No need to let it discourage.  Hehehey.
     

    http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

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  4. LegumeSam Posted 3:24 am
    28 Apr 2006

    Higher gasoline taxes?The first thing the politicians will do in response to higher gas prices will be to LOWER gas taxes!  Don't kid yourself!  There will be ENORMOUS political pressure to mine every square inch of the earth to maintain capitalist world-society's 85 million bbl.day oil habit.  Then when it's all gone?  When world ecosystems have been ravaged everywhere by global warming?  Shut up and take your cyanide capsules.
    Capitalism is faced with the exhaustion of its capacities in every theater of its operations.  Increasing financial instability; increasing eco-devastation; increasing resort to violence     warfare.  Higher gasoline taxes?  It's time to end the capitalist system before it ends us.



    http://todd4senate.org/

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  5. GRLCowan's avatar

    GRLCowan Posted 4:15 am
    28 Apr 2006

    Nuclear gasolineGasoline prices have risen in the past without precipitating precipitous government action to reduce its take. Gasoline retailers make much of their living when retail prices are declining, and motorists aren't intent on shopping around, and will let retailers take a penny or two. I think the US federal gasoline excise tax rise in Clinton's first term was similarly timed.
    That fits the pattern I see: in publically paid hands, money from high fossil fuel taxes are exactly like oil profits, except they're recession-proof; the publically paid talk as if they had no idea they had any oil and gas income, but act as if it were on their minds fairly early in the morning, fairly late in the afternoon, and at many points in between.
    And they have power shepherd the rest of us into driving plenty -- for instance by control cities' layout so that lots of cross-town driving is needed -- and speeding, with frequent stops. It would be much better if the only oil and gas profits were private ones.
    --- G.R.L. Cowan, former hydrogen fan

    B: internal combustion, nuclear cachet

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  6. Weeb Posted 3:29 am
    01 May 2006

    Biofuels, other clean technology and behaviorYour posts raise a valid point, but I do not think they account adequately for three things.  First, high gas prices will not only spurn the development of harmful alternative fuels that are coal based, but will also help create demand for more environmentally friendly fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel. I understand biofuels are not perfect, but they are better than fossil fuels and biofuels still have a leg up on coal-based fuels.

    Second, high gas prices serve as a continual reminder to people that we need to invest in other types of renewable technologies even if they cannot power our vehicles yet.  All this attention to high gas prices makes people aware that the US is overly dependant on foreign sources of energy.  This type of discussion leads to more interest, investment and publicity for other renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, tidal and geothermal power.

    Third, high gas prices can and have already begun to change the behavior of people.  Not only are people looking to buy cars with a higher gas mileage, but there is anecdotal evidence of increased car pooling and use of mass transit.  These behaviors can develop into habits thereby create a more environmentally responsible citizenry.
    -Hal Connolly

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  7. tjacorn Posted 3:43 am
    01 May 2006

    Raise Gasoline TaxesKeep preaching it. It's the best thing for our country in the long run even if public hates the thought of it presently.
    Thomas Friedman, author of "The World is Flat," advocated for a higher gas tax in Friday's NYTimes. Here's the link:
    http://select.nytimes.com/2006/04/28/opinion/28friedman.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op
    %2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists%2fThomas%20L%20Friedman

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  8. sukumar Posted 12:22 pm
    01 May 2006

    High gas prices: Are Americans really hurting?Well, this past weekend the kid next door in my very middle-class suburban community spent the entire weekend tearing around the neighborhood in his ATV, belching blue smoke, presumably preparatory to tearing up the forests with it. The guy across the street left his car engine and car air conditioner running for over half an hour while his car was parked in front of the house with his dog in the car (Outside air temperatures being 65F). If this is how much we're hurting, we need to hurt some more!

    Nations across the world have had higher petrol prices for decades. Sure, most of those high prices go towards taxes and some are advocating similar taxes here to curb demand. But if my neighborhood is any indication, I don't see this happening any time soon and given how this government spends my tax dollars, do I care if Lee Raymond gets a heart attack guzzling my money or Haliburton? Burn, baby, burn!

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