#12 — What! $4 a Gallon!!
Don’t tell anyone — It’s really a lot more!
Almost every person alive today has grown up in a world where access to cheap and abundant fossil fuel energy has been a huge factor in everything we do, every day.
Until a few years ago, our petroleum based lifestyle was barely given a thought, except when filling up the car or paying the electric bill. Most of us vaguely realized that there were other costs that had to be paid, but that was just the price of doing our daily business. Now, just in the nick of time, we have developed technologies to allow us to use the sun’s energy to fuel our lavish lifestyles.
Many see no rush to switch away from fossil fuels — they are skeptical that climate change is an immediate threat, and lots of people are making money on mining, distributing and servicing the machinery of our petroleum life blood.
With Russian troops marching into Ukraine, it’s a good time to think about the true cost of our fossil fuel culture.
We see it at the gas pumps, or in our electric bills, but that is only the beginning. There are many other costs, some that we pay every day “under the radar” and some in the form of debts we will have to pay someday soon.
Geopolitical Costs
Those of us old enough woke up to the power of petroleum as a weapon with the OPEC oil embargo of 1973. Targeted at nations that had supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War, it marked the beginning of an era where our petroleum dependence has been used as a foreign policy tool. Ask yourself: would the two Gulf Wars have taken place if the Middle East had had no petroleum reserves? Would the 9/11 attacks have happened if we were not caught in a Devil’s Bargain for oil? Would Vladimir Putin have dared to invade Ukraine if Europe were not so dependent on Russian energy?
Domestic Political Costs
In 2017 the American Petroleum Institute reported spending over $8.5 million and employed more than 90 lobbyist to influence our government. Does anyone think they do this to support our democratic institutions? Or could it be to protect their enormous subsidies, over 10 billion a year by many estimates. With the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision opening the flood gates of corporate political contributions, our politicians have found it increasingly difficult to act independently. Learn about the effects of the Citizens United ruling
Environmental Costs
Deepwater Horizon spilled over 134 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, a disaster for marine life all along the Gulf coast. Worse, the detergents used to break up the oil slick insure that petrochemicals are distributed throughout the oceans and percolate into the atmosphere. Lesser spills take place monthly around the world and are likely a major explanation for the declining health of our marine ecosystem. Read about the long term health problems of oil spill cleanup workers
Petroleum contamination of groundwater supplies, from leaking storage tanks, pipelines, fracking and ground spills is a daily occurance. Every rainstorm washes petrochemicals from roads, parking lots and industrial sites into the soil where it eventually makes its way to our wells, reservoirs, and streams.
Mercury contamination, much of it from coal fired power plants, has made much of our commercial and recreational fish unsafe to eat.
Vehicle exhaust contains carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, formaldehyde, benzene and soot: all at toxic levels in high traffic locations.
Health Costs
Recent studies have dramatically increased estimates of the number of deaths attributable to fossil fuel air pollution, as many a 8 million each year Harvard School of Engineering. Add to this the hundreds of millions who suffer health conditions exacerbated by air pollution — almost all of it the result of burning fossil fuels.
THE BILL, PLEASE
The Yale School for the Envirnment estimates that cost of just air pollution from fossil fuels is about $8 billion a day, 3.3% of global GDP! Add to that all the other costs mentioned above. Then, hold your breath, and add in the biggest cost of them all — the cost of dealing with climate change!
“Nothing has distorted our foreign policy, our commitments to human rights, our national security and, most of all, our environment than our oil addiction.“ Thomas Friedman See Friedman’s full article
We're onboard with that! I absolutely love my EV that I've had for over 2 years, and am so grateful that I haven't had to go to the gas pumps at all since. Not to mention oil changes, tune-ups, etc.! Thank you Doug!