First, the good news. Prices at the gasoline pump will average $2.37 a gallon for regular unleaded in 2009. That’s the prediction released today from the U.S. Energy Information Administration – which is some government agency that no one has ever heard of inside the U.S. Department of Energy.
Oh, great. In the short run, it benefits everyone to have gas prices come down – especially after what we’ve seen over the last year and a half. That means people in general will have more money each month to buy other things. Increased spending on other things helps the economy – which, if you haven’t noticed, is currently going down in flames.
Oh, crap. In the long run, lower gas prices just put us back to where we were a couple a years ago. We are still addicted to a fuel source that 1) we are going to run out of; 2) pollutes the environment; 3) sends millions of dollars a year out of the country.
I’m worried people are going to forget that a few short months ago, gasoline cost $4.19. When gasoline is that expensive, people think seriously about changing their habits. They carpool. They make fewer unnecessary trips. They buy scooters instead of SUVs. When gas is cheap, people forget about all of that. When people go back to their old ways, we are just setting ourselves up for another crash.
-Vince
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