Don't tap the reserve

I’m from northwest Indiana, and to get from Bloomington to my parents’ house always takes three hours, no matter what route I take or how fast I drive. I drive a 1994 Suburban: An ancient, 0-to-60-in-10-minutes behemoth that, on a good day, gets maybe 14 miles to the gallon.

My point is I use more than my fair share of crude oil. So when I go home for a weekend or a break, I am very aware of gas prices. 

Thanks largely to unrest in the Middle East, especially Libya, the barrel price for crude oil rose well past $100 for the first time since 2008. We saw the increase reflected at the pump; in less than a month ,the statewide average rose from $3.13 a gallon to $3.55.

This spike has been severe enough to cause a fair share of complaining and inspire a plethora of different ideas about how to combat rising prices. The ideas have ranged from the completely inane (no matter how many Facebook groups claim otherwise, a “Gas Free Day!” is not going to terrify oil companies into lowering prices) to the slightly less so. 

One proposal that comes from the Democrats and is tenuously sanctioned by the Obama administration would be to tap into the U.S. strategic oil reserve (which contains 724 million barrels of oil) to help stabilize prices. The increased supply would hopefully translate directly into consumer benefit, curbing rising gas prices and bringing them back in line with what drivers are used to paying.     

The poor college student part of me wants to like this idea, but I know better. Our energy problems are far greater than oil rising to more than $100 a barrel. As every third grader knows and many commuting adults seem to forget, oil is a finite resource, and we rely far too much on it already. The concern should be on shifting Americans away from our addiction to oil, not enabling it.

With my incredibly inefficient car, I am one of the worst offenders. I’ve gone back home without sharing a ride, and the round trip can take 25 to 30 gallons.

It’s painful to spend that much money on gas, but not painful enough. I would love to buy a shiny new electric or hybrid car (or honestly, even one that gets 20 mpg), but at the moment, it makes no financial sense.

Gas is expensive, but not expensive enough that I would seriously consider trading up my car solely on the basis of energy efficiency, at least not now. If we continue to do everything we can to prevent rising gas prices, I won’t be the only American who has a distorted view of our energy reality.

— mebinder@indiana.edu