How we can change gas prices
Personally, I don't care how much gas costs per gallon. In fact, I would like to see gas prices increase even more. I would even support a hefty tax on gas to pay for the roads and other infrastructure. To me, that idea is much better than toll ways.The reason I like high gas prices is because that is when I start to see a change in people's behaviors. For example, the last time gas prices increased substantially my neighbor with the massive quad-cab, four wheel drive, ten mile per gallon, Ford pick-up which he uses to go to the doughnut shop or church, bought a small Volkswagen pickup to serve the same purpose. But once gas prices dropped, the gas sucking Ford came back out.
A few weeks ago I had a discussion with a woman in which she complained about gas prices. Afterwards she drove away in her shiny new Cadillac Escalade (14 mpg city, 18 mpg highway).
When we go to a car dealership and drive off the lot with a 14MPG vehicle we have told the auto industry gas mileage does not matter.
But, when those inefficient vehicles sit on the lot unsold, we have told the auto industry gas mileage does matter and they will act accordingly.
The government has Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards which is great and needed. But the consumer can do more by making gas mileage one of the main criteria for buying a car.
So, how can we change gas prices? We can reduce demand. Don't complain about gas prices, complain about gas mileage.
I am in agreement with the logic, but the cost of buying a new 'fuel efficient' vehicle; versus the amount of years till pay-back; verus whether the rest of the country follows my lead; versus the chance of buying a faulty vehicle ('think $3 energy efficient light bulbs that will last 10 years, but 'oh yea' if you turn them on and off they will crap out in the same time as a regular light bulb, so actually I am spending more money)makes me to afraid to do anything.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, Bob. I am with you on the compact fluorescents. I have found them disappointing for the most part. I actually started marking the dates on them before I put them in just to see how long they actually last. The longest time so for is about 2 years. But, of course, those are just the ones I have replaced so I won’t know if some lasted for 10 years until I replace them. :-) I am hoping the LED lights prove to be better. I just put some in my kitchen dining area and like them so far. The big plus is they are dimmable.
DeleteAs for payback time I think there is a different way of looking at it. We have a catch-22 in that efficient technology won’t improve or get cheaper until people buy it and people won’t buy it because it is expensive and not as reliable as engrained technology. I paid almost $50 dollars for the four LED light bulbs. They will most likely never pay for themselves. But I did not buy them in hopes of saving money; I bought them to support the technology. All my light bulbs moving forward will be the most efficient I can afford just for that reason. Efficiency is what I look for in my appliances and I am willing to pay more for that. As a by-product of that I have a lower utility bill than most people I know.
For cars, I like the idea of hybrids, but they are expensive and have the environmental cost due to the rare Earth minerals for the batteries and all the electronics to control the car. I bought a used 1999 VW Beetle TDI (diesel) for $5,500 and got about 40MPG and drove it for 280,000 miles. That is a fraction of the cost of a hybrid, almost the same gas mileage and pretty standard technology. Before that I had a Honda Civic with a manual transmission and it got almost 40MPG. I paid $16,000 for it new. There are alternatives to the expensive hybrids.
The main point I am making in the post is we need to let manufactures know we want more effective technology by making that a criteria for buying it.