Conservation

Specifically with respect to oil consumption.

It is always nice to hear people discussing conservation, but it often misses much of the point. I would love for every selfish jackass driving a Hummer or a Suburban or the like around town to stop (the 1% or less of SUV drivers who actually need such a vehicle are excluded...none of them drive Cadillac or Porsche or Lexus or probably Hummer). I would love if the feds would initiate a high gas guzzler tax for cars less than five years old or with values under $10k (reasons here). I would love it if people in this country would really, truly conserve. But we won't, and for myriad reasons, but the largest is that we don't really know what it means.

Gas prices are high, yes. Behemoth SUV's are partially responsible, yes. Gasoline demand is the reason demand is outpacing supply, maybe. The problem is that, while a fair amount of the oil use in this country is for gasoline, that is not all of it. From homes that use oil for heat to the power generators in this country, the vast majority of which are fossil fuel generators (both coal and oil), to the various industries that require oil as a raw material for manufacture (plastics, chemical plants, ...), the dependence that this nation has on oil is enormous. True conservation will require far more than improving the average gas milage of automobiles. True conservation will not occur until we have no choice. The government can give us no choice by outlawing new and late model vehicles that don't get at least 25+ mpg. They can limit the amount of power/gas allowed per citizen in this country. They can, but they shouldn't.

Restrictions don't do a good job of accounting for need. Workarounds will always favor those with the means. Tax breaks/penalties do a better job of getting those with means to conserve more, but they tend to, again, favor wealthier individuals, and often go to those who would do such things anyway. In large cities subsidized public transit and use of tolls/taxes for driving on the streets could be good, but the latter will never happen, and the former is all but useless without it. I am a big fan of severe gas taxes (gas should cost a minimum of $3/gal), but they must be implimented nationwide, not just in Chicago, and it is a bad move politically, so it won't happen anyway. The only real fix is individual responsibility, and I weep for the future.