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When filling up a tank of gas costs the same as buying two kids a new pair of shoes or a week’s worth of groceries, it’s sometimes hard to find anything positive in the situation.
But the high gas prices that hit the world this past year did have one positive aspect — they got people talking.
People began talking about the need for companies to develop more fuel-efficient cars and for people to start buying more fuel-efficient cars.
One of the country’s biggest oil men, T. Boone Pickens, took a lead in stressing the need to explore and develop renewable energy sources.
Most agree that innovations need to happen to power our world in a sustainable manner in decades to come, but there’s nothing like pain in the pocketbook to create a sense of urgency and ratchet up the process for change.
It seemed this country’s leaders were finally embracing the need to diversify the sources from which we get our energy in 2008.
Now fast forward a couple of months.
Gas prices were $1.51 at some local stations this week. Ahh ... the good ’ol days.
Prices like that mean a spur-of-the-moment Sunday afternoon joyride through the hills of western Colorado might once again be an option — as opposed to budgeting a month in order to set aside enough money to fill up the tank for that joy ride.
Gas is again affordable — at least momentarily.
But now that it is affordable, we hope people don’t forget what it was like when it wasn’t affordable. And we hope a hold doesn’t get put on the innovation that started when prices were high.
Leaders of the Big Three auto companies and government officials considering whether to bail them out must remember that part of the reason these companies are in the sorry shape they’re in today is because of their inability, if not unwillingness, to innovate. When gas prices skyrocketed, no one wanted to buy the gas-guzzling SUVs the companies had been kicking out for the past decade. If the government gives the Big Three money, we hope that money isn’t used to develop a bigger, badder Hummer.
Use that money to innovate and build the cars of the future.
As we plan for the future of powering this country, let’s continue to assume that the demand of traditional resources is going to exceed the supply, even if momentarily the prices don’t reflect that.
It starts at a local level.
We like that phase I of the Mesa County Energy Master Plan involves a resource inventory of coal, renewable energy resources, natural gas, oil and uranium that will be incorporated into an interactive, Web-based map. Renewable resources should be a part of every plan and discussion from this day forward.
Western Colorado is rich in an array of natural resources, many of which we haven’t even begun to tap — like sunlight and wind.
Gas prices, for the moment, are affordable again.
But let’s pretend it still costs $4 a gallon, and let’s continue to innovate for the future.
The Grand Junction Free Press editorial board consists of publisher Valerie J. Smith, managing editor Josh Nichols, community news editor Tracy Dvorak, night editor Steve Lysaker and news editor Marija Vader.
But the high gas prices that hit the world this past year did have one positive aspect — they got people talking.
People began talking about the need for companies to develop more fuel-efficient cars and for people to start buying more fuel-efficient cars.
One of the country’s biggest oil men, T. Boone Pickens, took a lead in stressing the need to explore and develop renewable energy sources.
Most agree that innovations need to happen to power our world in a sustainable manner in decades to come, but there’s nothing like pain in the pocketbook to create a sense of urgency and ratchet up the process for change.
It seemed this country’s leaders were finally embracing the need to diversify the sources from which we get our energy in 2008.
Now fast forward a couple of months.
Gas prices were $1.51 at some local stations this week. Ahh ... the good ’ol days.
Prices like that mean a spur-of-the-moment Sunday afternoon joyride through the hills of western Colorado might once again be an option — as opposed to budgeting a month in order to set aside enough money to fill up the tank for that joy ride.
Gas is again affordable — at least momentarily.
But now that it is affordable, we hope people don’t forget what it was like when it wasn’t affordable. And we hope a hold doesn’t get put on the innovation that started when prices were high.
Leaders of the Big Three auto companies and government officials considering whether to bail them out must remember that part of the reason these companies are in the sorry shape they’re in today is because of their inability, if not unwillingness, to innovate. When gas prices skyrocketed, no one wanted to buy the gas-guzzling SUVs the companies had been kicking out for the past decade. If the government gives the Big Three money, we hope that money isn’t used to develop a bigger, badder Hummer.
Use that money to innovate and build the cars of the future.
As we plan for the future of powering this country, let’s continue to assume that the demand of traditional resources is going to exceed the supply, even if momentarily the prices don’t reflect that.
It starts at a local level.
We like that phase I of the Mesa County Energy Master Plan involves a resource inventory of coal, renewable energy resources, natural gas, oil and uranium that will be incorporated into an interactive, Web-based map. Renewable resources should be a part of every plan and discussion from this day forward.
Western Colorado is rich in an array of natural resources, many of which we haven’t even begun to tap — like sunlight and wind.
Gas prices, for the moment, are affordable again.
But let’s pretend it still costs $4 a gallon, and let’s continue to innovate for the future.
The Grand Junction Free Press editorial board consists of publisher Valerie J. Smith, managing editor Josh Nichols, community news editor Tracy Dvorak, night editor Steve Lysaker and news editor Marija Vader.
