The whole furor over the price of gasoline has gotten out of hand and
is being caused less by actual high gas prices, but more by a populace
ignorant of basic economics and of science.
Forget the fact that gasoline, adjusted for inflation, is not that
expensive. We have been paying too low a price for oil for a long time.
During the 90's when gas was about 99 cents a gallon, it was mainly
because of collapses in Asian economies With the current rise of China
and India as world powers and energy consumers, we are now paying
proper prices for gasoline.
Another reason for the recent sudden spikes in oil prices is because of
government meddling in requiring Ethanol be added to all gasoline.
Ethanol is worthless fuel additive. It's wasteful, expensive, and
basicly just a subsidy for corn farmers.
If you take into account costs of growing and harvesting corn,
producing and transporting the ethanol, ethanol uses more energy to
produce than we get from it. People think Ethanol is the answer. It is
actually worse for the environment and more expensive.
According to a recent Business Week article, Ethanol costs about 6
units of energy to produce for every unit it produces. Ethanol cannot
be transported through pipelines, and must be transported via truck.
This takes away trucks which would normally be delivering gasoline to
filling stations, reducing gasoline supplies and using fuel itself,
further adding to the cost of what you pay at the pump.
So if you combine a knowledge of basic economics and science, you can
clearly see who the real culprit is for our "outrageous" gas prices.
