3 Reason Why $5 Gas Is A Good Thing

I know what you’re thinking.  How on earth could paying $5 dollars a gallon for gas be good for me?  If you’re like me, you probably get a sick feeling in your stomach each time you see the gas gauge on your car, truck, or SUV fall dangerously close to that horrifying “E” line.  The last thing any of us want to do is drop another $50-100 bucks into our tanks.  While this pain is far from fun, it might just be a necessary evil and there are some upsides to having high priced fuel.
For the last 5 years or so I’ve been saying that I hope gas goes to $5 bucks a gallon.  I remember when gas was 99 cents a gallon back in 1999 in fact one day  I paid 89 cents.  Once we made the move over $1.5, I started thinking about how unsustainable our current dependancy on oil truly had become.  Up until the last 24 months or so, people thought I had lost my mind when I said that gas will be $5 bucks a gallon soon and the sooner the better.  Now keep in mind my hope for $5 gas had nothing to do with the financial pain it would cause my family or anyone else’s for that matter, but more with the uprising it would cause and awareness of our broken energy system.  Each time I made that radical statement about aspirations for higher prices, I had a lot of explaining to do.
First and foremost high gas prices and energy costs in general, quickly raise awareness with the American public on just how dependant we are with respect to foreign oil.  Very few people were talking about the how addicted we were to oil back when gas was under a buck a gallon.  Furthermore most people didn’t see any problem with importing fuel just as long as it didn’t directly impact their pocket books.  Today more then ever one of the most popular buzz topics around coffee shops, dinner tables, and classrooms is oil.  To me this is the first step in getting the ball rolling towards developing alternative ways to power our cars and furnaces and cure our dependancy on imported crude.
A second point that I like to highlight that accompanies high fuel costs and a raising awareness with the public is political pressures.  Sadly it seems that politicians are in the business to get re-elected and not necessary serving the American public.  With that the popular issues tend to get the most attention by Washington.  As the old adage goes, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease”.  How many times have you heard Barrack Obama or John McCain talk about fixing our energy crisis or promise new laws and funding that promote alternative energy such as wind, solar, and bio-fuels.  Clearly the added pressure put on our elected officials from the American public gives way to more urgency in fixing our oil dependancy.
The last point I like to use when explaining my seemingly unbelievable aspiration for $5 dollar gas has to do with our children.  To me it’s obvious that oil and other current methods of fueling our energy needs are not sustainable and the price is only to rise.  Furthermore I think that the rise in cost is going to sky rocket over then next 5-10 years if we don’t change the current model quickly.  World demand is increasing, world population is increasing, and production is begging to show signs of lagging.  The last thing I want to see is my children bearing the burden of our unwillingness to change.  There isn’t a thing I wouldn’t do for my kids, including pay the price now for a more bright future for them.  The burden could be astronomical for future generations both financially and environmentally.
It truly pains me to pay $3-4 bucks a gallon right now for fuel, not to mention the rising cost of heating and cooling my home.  However I think that the pain would be greater if the urgency factor were put to the wayside and we lost track of our need to diverse energy consumption and production.  Typically after explaining my stance on $5 dollar gas, most people agree that  it creates a need for change.  I could only wish that the same urgency would be created if gas were to drop back to 99 cents a gallon and we had the foresight to skip the band-aid approach and look for a cure.

Do you think $5 gas is a good or bad thing?