On Palm Sunday it was $2.39, on Good Friday it was $2.57 and on Easter morning the oil industry gave “rising” a less joyous connotation as the price of gasoline reached $3.00 in certain areas of the country. The time of Good News for believers was quite the opposite for consumers, who have to foot the de Vernai for $77 dollar barrels of oil.

 

Like every time gas prices rise, news networks, blogs and daily newspapers inquired into the possible solutions for burdened customers. Yes, again. Although we see a sharp spike in gas prices at least four times a year (natural disasters in the Gulf Coast, summer travel season, Nigerian political unrest, etc.) the news media is buzzing with old news.

 

The arguments for getting rid of your SUV, using public transportation and funding alternative fuel research get copied, pasted and presented to the public as the means of aid during the price hike.

 

All right, I’ll grant you that driving a Prius as opposed to a Hummer will save you some cash, as will making acquaintance with a bus schedule. But the American public squirms at the ‘experts’ who are telling them how to live their lives.

 

In large part that is due to the abstract approach to gas prices consumers are presented with. How many gallons are in a barrel? What is the price difference between crude oil and what we actually put in our tanks? How does the U.S. relationship with Venezuela influence the number boards on street corners?

 

It’s all really hard to get a hang of, but it is not a permit to abandon the discussion of fuel prices.  It’s time for us to start asking new, more personal questions and for the media to react by pursuing new answers.

 

For example, what is the role of the big oil companies in setting the prices? Some political situations that cause gas prices to go up are inevitable. But individual oil empires have the power to lower the price of gas for the average consumer.

 

Exxon-Mobil, a leader in the market, extracts the oil out of the ground, refines and sells it. Their profit margin is about 29 percent – just enough to give its CEO a $400 million retirement package.

 

What are the everyday tradeoffs that result from higher gas prices? The extra $10 you spend at the station every time you fill up is $10 that is not going toward your retirement fund, health insurance or kids’ education.

 

Analyzing gas prices without being guilt-tripped by progressive scientists or urban planners allows us to see that maybe there is merit to their propositions after all. But that realization must be organic, not a result of knee-jerk responses to the propaganda that is often disguised as authorized consensus.

 

The American public will not be convinced to invest in fuel-efficient cars en masse, or to put pressure on legislators to support public transportation, unless they do the cost/benefit analysis by themselves.

 

The solutions, coming from outside sources, seem like unwelcome soliciting when done by talking heads on CNN. It is only when individual families and small businesses realize the daily sacrifices they must make to pay extra for gas that they will aggressively seek resolution to the problem.