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An unexpected result of high gas prices
Posted By katie allison granju
If you thought sky-high gas prices would push Americans toward conservation and environmentalism, well, you would be wrong.
Some very (to me) surprising info from the AP today:
A new poll shows high gasoline prices have dramatically changed Americans’ views on energy and the environment. More people now say expanding oil drilling and building new power plants is a bigger priority than energy conservation.
The poll by the Pew Research Center shows nearly half of those surveyed — or 47 percent — now rate energy exploration, drilling and building new power plants more important, compared with 35 percent in February.
The Pew poll of about 2,000 adults conducted in late June shows the shift toward energy development across the political spectrum including among Democrats, political independents, liberals and young people.
Jul 1st, 2008
For many, the desire to “save the planet” ends where $4 gas begins.
I think folks realize that if you’re going to conserve something, you’ve got to have it in the first place. The current NIMBY and BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything) environmentalist slants mean that there’s been less and less of what we need for a technological civilization - and the prices will keep going higher and higher until that changes.
Just proves that the average American isn’t as stupid as ‘Progressives’ and/or Obama think they are.
Americans *are* conserving. They’re driving less, and gasoline usage is down to 2002 levels. People *do* respond to price signals.
OTOH, most of them aren’t really willing to make the drastic changes in their lifestyle they’re told they must (by noted energy conservationists and sustainable lifestyle experts Al Gore, Barbra Streisand, Leo DeCaprio, and Laurie David) while there are plausible alternative policies to try.
Maybe, just maybe, if some of those so-called Greens and Conservationists quit jetting around the world (in private jets, no less) the average American would be more amenable to conserving in their own life.
Are you surprised by the AP circulating this info, the fact that it took people this long to wake up to the obvious solution, or are you actually surprised by the results?
The problem with conservation is that, while inherently good, you can only cut so far before you hit the bone or (more often) stop because of the pain. It also doesn’t solve supply problems, but can in some ways exacerbate them; if a scarcity doesn’t look quite so bad anymore, the impetus to correct it falls away. Eating less may get people through a famine, but only an idiot wouldn’t try to find another source of sustenance in the meantime. Had energy development and exploration been a priority 15 years ago, we wouldn’t be in this mess at all right now. Gas prices have been shooting up for no defensible reason for a decade now, more than long enough to have taken corrective action. It’s a shame things had to get this bad to force people to wake up to reality.
Well - it would almost be worth it for gas to rise to $ 6.00 a gallon to see the nutroots really freak out !
Why is this surprising? I think it’s clear enough that people favor the protection of the environment until and unless it means putting our economy into a tailspin.
Some Brits were surprised to find out that few Britons supported higher taxes and stricter regulations to combat global warming. Well, why is that surprising? The whole global warming issue has always been presented as one which can and should be fought in cost-free ways.
People can’t afford to pay those taxes and maintain their lifestyles. That they’re favoring their lifestyles really ought surprise nobody…unless they’ve bought into the notion that people actually believe that warming is something that will devastate us unless we take corrective action and that this corrective action will actually be effective.
“Had energy development and exploration been a priority 15 years ago, we wouldn’t be in this mess at all right now.”
Um, try 30 years ago. The doofus’s name was “Carter”.
I wonder which threshold needs to be crossed for people to stop using the euphemism “conservation” and replace it with the intention: rationing.
The Carter Luddites are about rationing your access, nothing more. And now the blue collar workers are getting hammered by the folly.
So ironic. The greens have always lusted for high fuel prices. Now they have them, and they’re losing their political support. Reap the whirlwind…
Uh, Chad, that bar is infinitely high. You’re right, of course, but Teh Pressss is not going to use the word, any more than they’re going to allow the word “illegal” to appear within two pages and/or fifteen minutes of a story on immigration.
Regards,
Ric
“Just proves that the average American isn’t as stupid as ‘Progressives’ and/or Obama think they are.”
The fact less than half have caught on now and only after the getting smacked in the face, indicates we are dumber than obama thinks we are, … enjoy the nanny state election results and the subsequent tough love from the leftists, throwing off the chains of cheap energy and into the abyss of leaf-rot gassification and medieval windmills and the end of western civilization, by then a few more of these dunces may get it. It took europe 30 years to show signs of getting it, we’re just now jumping into the abyss they are trying to climb out of.
Both of my Senators Boxer and Feinstein think it fine to run California into the energy ditch and it might be time to have them move on to another universe where $10 gasoline is liked. Anyone know if a Senator can be recalled?
Ronnor,
No, Senators can not be recalled. There doesn’t seem to be any provisions for it in Federal Law. Makes it worth a more serious vote in the future, eh?
You want $6 gas? When Congress votes in a windfall profits tax, you’ll have $6 gas and maybe more. This election is about more than a President.
Seriously Folks, all this talk about conservation. How much can you make a difference. Does the Mom I see at the grocer checkout putting items back, really drive around too much? Will your kids only go to school a couple of days a week, or you go to work occasionally, or maybe give up the kids soccer or a trip to the dentist, or should mom not work, ’cause she can’t offset gas prices. Get real, these prices hit rural people the hardest … what a shame Americans want people to suffer through conservation rather than provide jobs for Americans and abundant energy.
The “people” haven’t suffered enough.
Sometime sooner or later they will get it.
“Just proves that the average American isn’t as stupid as ‘Progressives’ and/or Obama think they are.”
Yes they are, or we wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with. The last 30 or so years of inaction led to this day and everyone who wasn’t paying attention is to blame. It’s as if most people don’t understand how the world works and what role oil has in making it work.
How does an increase in interest in expanding oil exploration, production and refining capacity equal a resistance to conservation? Americans are _already_ conserving fuel as gas prices rise and declining demand illustrates. That Americans also want increased capacity demonstrates an unusually long-term focus for Americans. Many voters remember the Democrats insistence that drilling in ANWR would not produce results for a decade … that occurred, umm, a decade plus ago.
Additional US production won’t reduce gasoline prices by itself, the _real_ damage has been the policies of the Fed that have wrecked the value of USD, but that’s another story.