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Hernando Today

For Every Action, There's A Reaction

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J. C. MacKERCHER Guest columnist

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 17, 2008

The Obama camp teases McCain about his federal tax relief on gasoline during the summer vacation period. Somewhat later, Obama suggested we check our tire pressure. The McCain clan belittled his idea as too little and too late. Individually or together, both made sense to the "little people" who scrimp and save throughout the year for a break at the beach or a picnic in the mountains.
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, leaders of the Democratic Congress, meanwhile are playing supra hardball politics. If it's not politics, and it most assuredly is, these pols lack any sense of priority. Nancy and Harry, rather than responding to high prices at the gasoline pumps, turned off the lights in the Capitol and shut down the air conditioning. They needed that five-week recess more than the "little people" need government initiatives aimed at solving problems.

Condemning offshore drilling well beyond our coastlines and that sliver of land in the northern steppe of Alaska is irrational. They seem oblivious that the Chinese will soon, if not now, be drilling oil less than 60 miles from Florida's shores. Pelosi and Reed explain it will take an imagined decade to make a dent in our oil consumption. The same pertains to avoiding use of nuclear power as an enhanced alternative to our national energy outlook. Solar and wind power are attractive alternatives if Mother Nature cooperates 24/7, but both are expensive outlays and are limited in their coverage.

We've seen in the last few weeks a significant drop in the super inflated cost of oil by the barrel and gallon at the pump. There was a reason for that drop. Although many pols will not admit it in this never ending election cycle, we can trace the cause of that drop to when President Bush jawboned $147 a barrel for crude oil. It was something Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton and the two Bushes should have done years earlier.

In case you haven't noticed, gas prices have dropped from $4.17 to $3.81 during that same period.

The Arab potentates must have been delighted, if not mystified, by the lack of U. S. reaction as we were delivering of late $700 billion dollars into the coffers of nations not altogether in sync with our values.

It's worth taking a closer look at the leadership of these people in the Middle East. It's an understatement to say they differ from ours. They must monitor and assess their resources as they have had to do for generations. Beyond sand and oil, however, they are beggars in comparison to much of the "outside" world. These kings, emirs, princes and holy men essentially run the shows.

The next 24 hours, a month or even a year are not the priority our elections impose on our politicians. The chieftains aren't elected. Consequently, it's down that road to 10, 20, even 30 years when alternatives to petrol jeopardize their pre-eminence.

Where will they stand if the United States, Japan, India and China decide to get serious about alternative energy? Don't concede for a moment that these grand poo-bahs do not look for signals of this.

Honda already possesses a hydrogen powered automobile that is to be tested in California. Once we have developed an infrastructure of hydrogen pumps throughout our country, not even Katie is going to be able to keep the door closed. Same pertains to the development of a battery that can replace the need for gasoline.

What we need now are elected officials at the national, state, county and community levels to seek means by which we can do something that so vitally affects our economy and our national security rather than resort to excuses of why we can't. Had these people or their predecessors rolled up their sleeves and taken off their dunce caps in the early 1970s, our needs for energy could have been vastly improved at this early juncture of the 21st century.

You might ask what a community or county can do to improve our situation? Simple - time as many traffic lights as possible 24 hours a day. Alleviating the stop and go on main arteries can be achieved. The technology has existed for years. This easily achieved expedient could facilitate savings for the individual and a huge decrease in our gas importations on a national scale.

What can the feds do? A first step could be simple, but probably won't be. Nancy and Hank need only call for Congress to convene immediately to address immediate energy initiatives.

Given the Democratic convention on the doorstep time wise, imagine the drama such an initiative would create both at home and abroad. This action by itself would drive down the price of gasoline. It would signal to the potentates we are serious and the rules are going to change. After approving the offshore drilling, get to the convention and dedicate the party to joining the Republicans in the development of alternative fuels. The Republican convention could pledge their party to the same. Immediately after the November elections, convene Congress and add the development of nuclear sites for much more of our energy.

Billions of dollars are needed to realize success in this respect. Where do we get it?

Tax the excess profit of "Big Oil" and stop giving them billions of dollars in tax breaks from the "little people's" wallets. Big Oil talks a good game about alternative energy, but where's the progress in what the Japanese already seemed to have solved? We should also ask what serious efforts are being devoted to the improvement of battery-driven vehicles.

This nation, given the crush of traffic on our highways and threat to our use of our airways, must develop a rapid rail transit system keyed to the nation and locally at the city level.

The states, cities, counties and smaller municipalities must share the burden in bringing this about. They must provide rapid transit and share in financing this sector. Impose special taxes on students who park in the school area or even deny them the right to use an automobile. (This beats having to put combat boots on those sand dunes to ensure us a flow of oil.) School buses and shank's mare are alternatives. Raise the federal, state and local taxes on a family's third car, increase that raise on the fourth cars, etc. If the car replaced by a new purchase is not sold or traded, the special excise taxes are applied to the new car.

If the noose tightens, impose gas rationing. This puts energy saving on a person-to-person basis as it did in World War II.

Even discussing these seemingly nightmarish actions at the federal level is going to impact those people whose sole treasure is oil. It doesn't have to happen in a day, a week or a decade. However, whenever OPECers start to upset real supply and demand, it's belt-tightening time - out front and public.

Remember - for every action, there's a reaction.

J. C. MacKercher lives in Weeki Wachee.

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