But in the long run, an inflated price for gasoline is, I would argue, good for the environment. It may encourage people to take carpools to work, to bicycle and walk more. This will improve health and welfare.
The price spike may further spur the development of battery-driven cars. Both Ford and General Motors have said they will be manufacturing all-electric fleets by 2030. I never thought I would live to see the day.
True, batteries need to be recharged, and their energy efficiency will turn on the “energy mix” in the local electricity grid. Most grids in the U.S. are powered by multiple sources of energy, including renewables such as wind and solar.
President Biden has pledged to work towards decarbonizing the U.S. electricity grid by 2035. And the
bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill provides funding for electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
High gas prices may intensify the search for alternative energy sources. Former
President Trump claims
wind farms kill birds, but they make a sustainable source of battery recharging. Hydrogen as an alternative transportation fuel stems from its ability to power fuel cells in zero-emission vehicles, its potential for domestic production and the fuel cell’s fast filling time and high efficiency.
Today 95 percent of the hydrogen produced in the United States is made by natural gas reforming, an advanced production process that builds upon the existing natural gas pipeline delivery infrastructure.
Besides, hydrogen is much cheaper than crude and may also be a source of clean energy. The Green New Deal movement has been anathema to the far-right climate deniers, who have argued that environmentalists are undercutting the teachings of religion.
Sen.
Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) has cited the Bible as his basis for denying climate change. Inhofe, past chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has
argued for years that only God, not men and women, can affect climate. He said in a 2012 address: “[M]y point is, God’s still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous.” It couldn’t be that the real basis is that Oklahoma is an oil and gas state.
Rep.
John Shimkus (R-Ill.), who served in the House for 24 years, believes
global warming is nothing to worry about “because God promised in the book of Genesis that he wouldn’t destroy the earth after the flood.”
God decides when the “earth will end,” he thundered. Shimkus forgot that the almighty’s promise was tightly hedged:
“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” In the
words of Shakespeare: “The devil can cite scripture for his purpose.”
Americans have long taken cheap gas as a foregone conclusion, and have been profligate in its consumption.
thehill.com