A recent rise in gasoline prices to $3 a gallon or more has caught the attention of drivers here and around the country. So have reports, including one on the front page of this newspaper on Monday morning, that many experts predict fuel prices will reach $3.50 or more a gallon by summer and perhaps soar to $5 in the not-too-distant future. The increases and predictions are reminders that consumers have only one option to combat rising costs. They have to reduce consumption.
If U.S. drivers want to protect their pocketbook now and in the future, the best way to do so is to use less gasoline. There are some indications that truism is gaining a foothold across the nation.
Fuel consumption in the United States has declined in the last four years, though that is due as much to the sad state of the economy as it is anything else. Sure, many new vehicles are more fuel efficient now than those of the past. There has been some progress, as well, in developing and selling vehicles that use alternative forms of energy. And there has been modest expansion in the availability of mass transit in some areas of the country. All have put downward pressure on fuel prices. Still prices are going up.
Some of the rise can be attributed to an improving U.S. economy. But that’s hardly the whole story. The real upward pressure on gas prices comes from outside the United States. It comes from rapidly developing nations like China — where about 18 million new cars were sold last year — and India, where a rising middle class pushes up the demand for fuel. As global demand rises and supply remains constant or falls, prices everywhere — including the United States — shoot up.
Improved efficiency will help U.S. consumers cope, but it won’t eliminate rising fuel costs. It will take more. Changes in habit and lifestyle are necessary. There’s some evidence that those changes are beginning to occur.
U.S. automakers, for example, finally seem to get it. For years, they vigorously fought better fuel standards. Now, under pressure, they’ve started to develop and to market more fuel-efficient and alternative-energy vehicles. The change in policy has not gone unnoticed.
More and more Americans list fuel economy as a requisite when buying a new car. There’s a growing understanding, too, that expansion of mass transit and the infrastructure to support it is vital if the United States is to escape the economic and other consequences of rising fuel prices. The latter will be hard to achieve, especially since many members of the incoming Congress seem more intent on saving rather than spending money — even when the latter demonstrably will provide greater long-term benefits and savings.
For the moment, though, the best way to combat high fuel prices is to cut consumption by making wise choices when we buy vehicles and in how and when we drive them.