To the Editor--
High gas prices are a necessity to drive this country forward towards two critical goals for our country's long-term survival: cutting our dependency on petro-dictatorships like Iran, and reducing the negative environmental impact that our inefficient lifestyles have on the planet. To the first point, anything that reduces America's appetite for the stuff that fuels the economies of hostile nations is a positive from a national security stand point. As Thomas Friedman has frequently pointed out, the sooner the economy of countries like Iran are damaged by reduced oil sales, the sooner the mullahs will have to give up their death grip on their government.
Secondly, Eisenhower's interstate highway system has been the chief enabler for the contemporary American penchant for the 6 mpg SUV and the cheaply constructed energy apocalypse that is the McMansion. Anything that creates "free market" pressure to disincentivize the incredible damage that this way of life entails -- from the diesel transport required to bring goods to the outer reaches of minority-free exubrbia, to the single-occupant SUVs I pass everyday on my bike ride to work (yes I am so pious) -- must be seen as a painful but positive step towards a more sustainable way of life.
I think that Americans know that change is coming with regards to our inefficient lifestyles, but they don't want to have to pony up when the time comes to pay for it. The irony of course is that the whole oil industry is massively subsidized world-wide by the American taxpayer, as we foot the bill required to pay for our military to keep the world safe for the free flow of oil from the dictators to us. The true price of gas has been estimated to be anywhere from $5 to $15 a gallon. We should be so lucky that it has been so cheap for so long. Happy biking.
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