In the past week, literally, I have put $180 of gas into the tanks of cars I have driven. $69 into my wife’s car that I borrowed for a day to visit a client on site because I had a rental I didn’t want to inconvenience my partners with its black interior on such a blazing hot day. I poured nearly $70 into that car after driving it for less than a week before dropping another $40 into my own car after picking it up from the body shop. That $40 got me less than 3/4 a tank and I stopped because the though of my fuel expense was making me ill.

This is really crazy. I am inclined to cancel my upcoming on-site client visits because technically I can do them via web meeting, but web meetings are not the same. But the economics of these on-site visits just doesn’t add up. It’s an annoying situation.

Dick Morris has a book coming out in 2 weeks which apparently sheds light on the responsibilities that the commodities markets have on our gas situation. I trust Morris’ point of view and am curious to see what his insight has to offer us.

Personally, I do not hold the oil companies accountable. Sure they are making incredible profits, but this profit is necessary for them to create alternatives. I have a growing itch that it is up to us, THE PEOPLE, to take a stand. By curbing our driving habits, we truly can make a difference. I can start by doing my client appointments via the web. My wife has a 50-mile-plus round trip work commute and she could push for telecommuting 2 or 3 days a week.

These are slight examples and in reality we all would have to be committed to making minor and major sacrifices to take this stand. Consider the impact of say 25% of the U.S. driving population cutting back fuel consumption by 25% for a few months. You have to wonder what sort of impact this would have.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 11:33 pm and is filed under Current Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.