Essay Sample on Gas Prices for America

Today, gas prices as a national average have risen to 2.1 dollars per gallon. This is the highest gas price increase since 1990, during operation desert storm. What is the cause of this drastic increase in gas prices? Limited supply of crude oil from the Middle East some say. Others think the cause is high trade tariffs on incoming foreign oil. But what is the solution to this problem? Is it drilling in our national wildlife reserves in Alaska? Dropping the trade tariffs and promoting free trade around the world? Perhaps we should look for alternative energy sources; maybe even a combination of all three. But whatever the solution, it needs to be done quickly. America’s gas prices are becoming so outrageous that it is becoming more and more likely that our economy will fall into a depression, and our world, so dependent upon gas for transportation, is in danger of losing the luxuries that we take for granted. Something needs to be done now.

America’s main problem is the complete consumption of all the world’s recourses. A recent statistic shows that America consumes over ј of all the world’s recourses and yet only makes up 1/16 of the population. One solution to this problem is for America to restrict the amount of gas that it uses. However, this would be quite difficult task because of our democratic society. Limits on amount of gas that is expended would be seen as a violation of our constitutional rights. The only thing we can do is cajole the country into understanding the issue and suggest that other means of transportation such as carpools and buses are easy to adapt to, and extremely economical. This of course has already been done with the use of carpool lanes and increases in city buses, with little effect.

With so much gas being exhausted in our economy the more oil needs to be drilled or bought. President George W. Bush has recently signed an executive order to begin drilling in nation forests up in Alaska. He proclaims that there are safe and effective ways to remove the oil and cause little or no damage to the surrounding wildlife. Skeptics of his plan suggest that there is only a small amount of oil in the Alaskan forests and would therefore do our country no good. In any case the effects of this new oil excavation plan will not be in the upcoming future and thus is not an immediate answer to our current gas crisis. But there are other places in which to obtain oil, and that is from the oil rich Middle East. We do not presently have a good relationship with many of the Middle Eastern countries and this means that they are selling us the oil we need at a higher price. One solution to the gas crisis is to reconcile our differences with the Middle Eastern countries. But the animosity between us and the Middle East have been long occurring and a reconciliation attempt would result in a long and grueling negotiation with a lot of compromises from the U.S. thus making this a long and costly solution.

As stated before, America is the largest consumer of gasoline and other fossil fuels in the entire world. If there was a way to rely on other means of energy such as solar, fusion engines etc. our economy could flourish. The idea of a solar or battery powered car is not a new concept but perhaps an overlooked one. Today one could purchase such an automobile and then never need to buy gas and no longer need to worry about the cost. Such technology, however, is not only risky and hard to maintain, but it is also very costly. Electric cars are known to cost a minimum of 30,000 dollars and though money is saved over time, it is still unappealing to the frugal American public. Experimental solar and fusion engines are yet to become available to the public making this an impractical solution.

The final argument to assuage the rising gas prices is to drop our trade tariffs on incoming foreign oil. This solution gives us a quick and effective resolve to our countries problem. Our current system, which was designed to support America and American run industries, puts a certain cost percentage on all incoming non-domestic fossil fuels and thus increases prices higher than they should. If we were to impose no tariffs on the incoming oil then that extra percentage of cost would disappear. Not only is this an effective solution to the problem, it is a fast acting one. The effects of this resolution would be quickly discovered in a matter of months, and though it is only a small amount of decrease, it allows a small relief to the public and gives more time to create a more long lasting and efficient cure for our nations growing problem.

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