Christopher Steiner’s $20 Per Gallon is a sobering glimpse into what the future could hold. The American and global lifestyles are so enslaved by crude oil and petroleum derivatives that it’s scary. Mention crude prices, and cost-per-gallon at the corner Texaco probably pops into most people’s minds. But crude also fuels our airlines, our school buses, our freight-hauling semi trucks, our ocean-going liners, our military, even our food production.
FEAR MONGERS
Ironic that I said it is scary, because fear often is an easy way to sell books. I remember my parents made me attend a circa-1998 seminar on the coming Y2K catastrophe. I remember the speaker’s words well: “Bank vaults will spring open; others will lock down, never to open again…” Utilities would fail. Food and water would run scarce. There’d be looting, rioting, marshal law… As I sat in that tent meeting under the hot August sun, I began to literally shake, chills and fear paralyzing my 13-year old body. The guy was selling a book. And what of Y2K? As the final seconds of 1999 counted down, my younger brother sat on the couch, fear in his eyes. I snapped a picture of the TV screen, hoping to freeze-frame those last seconds of the twentieth century. Dad complained of a fat ass blocking his view of Dick Clark. And the lights stayed on. Water continued to flow. The gas-fed fire continued to light the fireplace. And we all drank (non-alcoholic) bubbly.
THOUGHT-PROVOKING READING
My point is that fear is a powerful thing, and apocalyptic, doomsday tales such as Steiner’s, often end up not being as bad as predicted. Steiner describes a world where the suburbs crumble. Wal Mart vanishes, and everyone moves to the city for its walkability and mass transit. Electric cars, while available, are not sustainable for the average family. Air travel becomes exorbitantly expensive; Disney World, Las Vegas, and other tourist-fed destinations shut down. As people pour back into cities, Rust Belt towns, like Buffalo, see a massive revitalization as solid old structures (i.e. the Statler) get rehabbed into mass-living quarters. Shipping our foodstuffs becomes prohibitively expensive, and so eating local (already a rising trend) becomes a must. Organic becomes mainstream too, as many conventional pesticides and fertilizers are petrol-based.
Steiner does back his work up with credible and informative interviews and a dizzying array of statistics. Much of the studies in business and science are fascinating to ponder. The chapter structure foregoes conventional numbering and instead corresponds to the world as he sees it at each price milestone (i.e. Chapter $18, Chapter $20). His writing style is forward, but occasionally crowded by needlessly ambiguous wording. The epilogue concludes with a glimpse into a new, utopian society where gasoline is but a $20/gallon novelty.
The road is utopia is seldom smooth or predictable. While definitely some interesting food for thought, Steiner’s undoubtedly liberal-slanted work is but an apocalyptic glance into what the future could be like. There are some good callouts regarding America’s wasteful, consumer-driven ways and the need for improvement. Like I said, good food for thought, but little to lie awake worrying about.
A PERSONAL REFLECTION
So this utopian society? More like the reversal of progress as far as I’m concerned. Less travel. Less diversity. More reliance on technology. I was reminded of a February 1 Buffalo News column by Doug Turner. Turner states that, “We have to build wealth anew the way China, India and Japan are—with factories, with manufacturing and total exploitation of natural resources, primarily drilling for more oil and gas everywhere we can. By the same processes that once made America and New York rich. [sic]”
Americans have come a long way in understanding our impact on the environment. We realize that our lifestyle of buying cheap, Chinese produced, oil-based plastic crap and disposing of it in the landfill is not sustainable. We’ve made our cars near zero emissions while getting higher fuel economy than ever before. We understand our fragile relationship with Creation, and we've learned from mistakes of the past. In a nutshell, I believe the answer to the finiteness of oil can be simply stated as, “Drill baby, drill!” Necessity is the mother of invention, and I believe American ingenuity will take us to place of far less oil consumption, cleaner technology, and better sustainability. I doubt the pillars that have made our society great will crumble all around us as the process unfolds.
WANT TO READ?
$20 Per Gallon is available in e-book format from Buffalo/Erie County Public Library's digital downloads. That's where I got my copy. Imagine the oil I saved by not driving to the library and getting the hardcopy, which itself used oil in its production and transit.
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