By Doug Draper
Sometime one wonders how intelligent we humans really are.
We supposedly have more smarts than any other species on the planet when it comes to learning from the past and using that knowledge, if we choose, to make some good, workable decisions for the future.
At this station and most others on the Canadian side of the border, the price of a litre of gas went up about 15 cents within a matter of hours.
But when it comes to such basics as where are we going to continue getting the energy we need to get ourselves around, to fuel our industries, and to keep the lights and the heat on at our homes and businesses, you have to wonder if we are any smarter than the proverbial ants some say will take over the world after we humans have worked our way to extinction.
These were among the thoughts that crossed my mind when a complimentary copy of the Friday, February 26 edition of a St. Catharines, Ontario newspaper was dropped off at my door and I looked at a front-page headline that read; “Drivers fume over price jump at pumps.” A further headline, for the same article reads; “Driver’s lament: ‘I’m captive’ to car.”
Come on folks. What is all of this “shock at the pumps” all about? What are we shocked about at this point? How many times has it been said and written by energy experts and economists all over the world that if we continue to rely so heavily on oil as our source of energy – especially oil from a region of the world as unstable politically as the Middle East – we are allowing ourselves to be held hostage to an oil addiction that will only see the cost of energy jump ever higher in the years ahead.
The latest turbulence in the middle east – most specifically the turmoil in Libya which remains one of the world’s largest sources of oil – saw prices at the pump on the Ontario side of the border from about $1.08.9 per litre on the morning of this past Thursday, February 24 to $1.23.9 at most pumps by the afternoon of the same day. Across the border in Buffalo and Niagara Falls, New York, prices for a gallon of gasoline shot up from about $3.29 to more than $3.50 during the same period of time.
Meanwhile, Wall Street and Bay Street analysts were speculating that the price of an American gallon could hit more than four bucks a gallon in the foreseeable future, triggering the possibility of another dip into recession, just as the American economy looked like it was starting to recover. And given how interlocked the Canadian economy is with that in the United States, look forward to similar bad news here.
And the bad news on the energy and economic front will probably just keep coming because we have governments in both Canada and the United States that have no progressive energy plans. U.S. President Barack Obama talked a good game about the need to move away from sources of oil from unstable regions of the world when he started running for president three years ago.
“It’s hard to overstate the degree to which our addition to oil undermines our future,” wrote Obama in his pre-presidency book “The Audacity of Hope, adding that “a nation that can’t control its energy sources can’t control its future.” Yet two years after his inauguration, President Obama has still not unveiled a road map for getting his country off oil as a major source of energy or for significantly tapping new and more renewable sources of energy.
As for Canada, it is as if the Conservative government of Stephen Harper was afraid for a while that Obama might fulfill his election promise of a new energy future and is now relieved to find the United States is still drunk on oil, including that produced in the Alberta tar sands. Further to that, it seems that Canadian politicians are just as captive to oil industry lobbyists as American politicians are and therefore have little or no will to eagerly explore energy alternatives.
So far as we citizens are concerned, we should know all of that about our governments if we have been paying the least little attention to the news. And we should know that our collective lack of effort over the years in pushing our governments to chart a new course on the energy front makes us just about as guilty as they are.
So what is all of the fuming at the pumps all about? Why are we so shocked then the price of gas jumps another 10 or 20 cents within a span of one or two days? In the absence of a sustainable energy plan, get used to the idea of more than two dollars a Canadian litre or more than five dollars a U.S. gallon for gasoline. Surely we are smart enough to know that our continued addition to oil means that is where we are heading, probably sooner than we think.
(Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to residents in our greater Niagara region and beyond.)
Niagara At Large 
Europeans have lived with much higher fuel costs for decades, which is one reason why they are so much more progressive than North Americans in the alternative energy sector.
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If people were not so married to their cars, and pushed for an economy that includes non-drivers and better and more convenient and affordable public transit, there would be competition in terms of transportation means and thus, less reliance on fuel.
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I agree with Doug’s summation relative to the short-sighted philosophy of “OUR” so called leaders in the past and as I look to what could be a very bleak future for our children and grand children I can see no single person, no party and definitely no plan or programs put forth by these “PRESENT” governmental bodies both Federal and Provincial that might indicate they are in tune with the need and wants of the peoples they are suppose to represent.
Government in this country has always been monetarily disposed to the will of dollar bill especially when that dollar bill finds itself in certain peoples bank accounts.
Trudeau was loved, admired and hated for his many traits that defined his persona..BUT…”was not owned” He was his own man and he believed in Canada, he tried to insure that Canada would control it own destiny and he invested Canada in the Energy Sector, He made sure that many peoples trading with Canada had a presence in Canada….Hence “FIRA” The Progressive Conservatives scrapped FIRA, the Energy Plan, the Avro Arrow, so many projects and dreams thus in essence scrapped a country where after the war it had a bright future, a magnificent future a future that saw engineers, scientist and brilliant minds from all over the world looking to and rushing towards to fulfill dreams.
America, Britain and France harvest these engineers and scientific minds after Canada’s dream was lost to political misadventure. The USA’s NASA Space programs flourished, England and France built the “Concorde” and one only has to look at the Concorde to realize it was an off shoot or a larger verson of the mighty “ARROW”. Like I have said so often read (if you dare) David Orchard’s “The Fight for Canada”. I realize the Judas McKay our “Defenceless” Minister will avoid reading this novel for reasons he will not speak of EVER.
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We know intellectually that the Creation is finite. We know that as stewards of what we have we need to make our lives match the resources we have been given in a way that ensures their sustainability. Acting on that knowledge requires choosing a different life than the one fuelled by cheap oil, and like most addicts, we will have to hit bottom before personal and societal change will happen.
Sadly, bottom is when the resource we most rely upon, oil, will be too expensive to use, and we will need it to transition to a sustainable economy.
Of course I am not without my own denial behaviour. I’m just back from Phoenix, visiting my Mom and taking some holiday time. I flew down there, rented a hybrid car (sort of like lite beer for an alcoholic), and with my huge carbon foot, stomped all over the countryside sightseeing.
What I saw was overwhelming. Few places are as unsustainable as southern Arizona. Scarce water is used for grass, there is no recycling to speak of, and single occupant SUVs and trucks are everywhere. Our sprawl would be considered high density in the Phoenix area. When the price of oil goes past $200 a barrel the place could shrivel up and return to its natural state. One can not walk to stores or even to a bus stop, when they finally get them, in 45C (and rising) summers. Residents will become pedestrians of the night.
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My latest auto is a flex- fuel car that burns 85% alcahol the cost inthe US yesterday was $2.85 cents a gallon it also went up recently but it is $1.00 gallon cheaper than the price of gasoline, the electric car owners are laughing all the way to the bank.Trudeau who I loved and hated, wanted a made in Canada price for fuel, Buffalo used to flood Fort Erie, to buy our gasoline and eat chinese food back in the 1980s,we have only ourselves to blame for voting against the only sane energy this country ever came up with.
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PS energy policy.
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