So gasoline prices have reached 14-year highs. Sure, there are sites like baltimoregasprices.com to help you find the lowest local prices, but that doesn't get rid of the gasoline leash around our necks. It frustrates me that we as a nation are so dependent on gasoline and, by extension, the countries of OPEC. It stinks that we're tied to a substance that pollutes our air. It stinks even worse that the money I spend on gasoline ends up in countries to which I don't want to give money.
Some people would solve this problem by increasing domestic oil production. I think that's a cop-out which avoids the root of the issue: we need to use less gasoline. Public transportation would be a good choice, if Baltimore's mass transportation system were more usable. I'm also looking into hybrid cars, like the Toyota Prius. Fuel cell vehicles would be a much better option, but it looks like they are at least 10 years down the road.
For now, I'm still stuck driving my car and pumping the gas. So I've been researching where my money is going. The Department of Energy publishes a list of which countries each oil company imports from. In February 2004, ExxonMobil, for example, imported a lot from Saudi Arabia, while Citgo mostly imported from Venezuela (it turns out that Citgo is a subsidiary of the Venezuelan government). This doesn't necessarily mean anything: there is no way of knowing if oil imported from Canada, for example, actually originated there, or whether the gas you buy from a Citgo station really comes from Citgo Petro Corp. I'm not advocating a large-scale boycott of Exxon either; after all, if everyone started buying from Crown then Crown would need to start importing from whoever has oil to sell, so the boycott would be self-defeating.
But on an individual level, if I have to buy gas I would rather buy it from Crown or Citgo than from Exxon. Or I could take the bus.
Posted by sarah at May 4, 2004 12:20 PM in Life