The Trick to Lowering Gas Prices and Stopping Dictators Like Putin
The Trick to Lowering Gas Prices and Stopping Dictators Like Putin
Issue No. 93
This week, Matt searches for a solution to his expensive gas problem ⛽ and Jackie prepares to protest in Palm Beach on April 2nd.
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I paid $4.20 per gallon for gas last week. Normally, the number 420 fills me with delight. But this time being high didn’t feel so good. I was mad about paying record-high prices to fuel up. However, I didn’t know who to be angry at. And so I tried to figure that out.
THE BIG PICTURE
Gas prices are a simple question of supply and demand. When quarantine was a way of life, nobody needed much oil. Once people got vaccinated and started coming out of hiding, economic activity picked up. Demand for oil increased and gas prices ticked up. In February, the amount paid at the pump exploded after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Sanctions, import bans, and bad vibes made Russia’s gas a toxic asset that most of the world no longer wanted to touch. Suddenly there was less oil supply in the market, although demand remained strong. The price per barrel got jacked up.
The U.S. government can do little to control what people pay at the pump right now — despite stickers claiming otherwise — because prices are determined by the world crude oil market. The United States only imports about 8 percent of its oil from Russia. But it doesn’t matter, the price per barrel of crude oil is the same everywhere on the commodities market, and oil companies pass on the costs to consumers.
That, however, doesn’t mean leadership in this country should throw up their hands and say there’s nothing we can do.
BATTLING AN ADDICTION
The United States is totally obsessed with oil. There’s always promise of electric cars and other renewable energies, but efforts to transition away from fossil fuels remain weak and non-committal. Since the government can’t quit its oil addiction, the public gets stuck paying every time global producers receive high demand.
This short-sightedness not only leads to higher gas prices, it also makes the world less safe.
Burning fossil fuels props up Russian President Vladimir Putin and the oligarchs who support him. Simultaneously, foot-dragging on decarbonization will worsen the long-term effects of climate change. These issues create a war on two fronts.
Ukrainian climate scientist Svitlana Krakovska lays it out in The Guardian:
“I started to think about the parallels between climate change and this war and it’s clear that the roots of both these threats to humanity are found in fossil fuels,” said Krakovska.
Burning oil, gas and coal is causing warming and impacts we need to adapt to. And Russia sells these resources and uses the money to buy weapons. Other countries are dependent upon these fossil fuels, they don’t make themselves free of them. This is a fossil fuel war. It’s clear we cannot continue to live this way, it will destroy our civilization.”
There’s an obvious solution here to win both of these wars: Remove ourselves from the yolk of fossil fuels.
FOSSIL-FUELED DICTATORS
Like a multi-billion dollar drug pusher, oil executives and politicians who benefit from petroleum money don’t want governments to break their bad habit. Oil lobbyists are claiming that gas is high because of environmental regulations limiting how much oil corporations can pump domestically. No such limitations exist. Oil giants won’t pump more because it’s not profitable to do so (and energy giants already do pump a heck of a lot of oil in the U.S.).
Even if companies started drilling more, it would not do much to shift prices. Ramping up production would take approximately six to nine months. Yet oil executives keep claiming the solution to the problem is to “drill baby drill!”
All this propaganda suggests that Big Oil is scared. And they should be. This moment might be a chance to drop the addiction.
The EU — which receives 40 percent of its gas from Russia — has made an ambitious vow “to slash Russian natural gas imports by two-thirds by next winter and to cut them out entirely by 2027” while scaling up renewable energies. U.S. politicians should get similarly inspired to leave oil behind for cleaner energy.
Putin has gone by some unique monikers in the past few weeks. He’s been called a “petro-fascist”; a “fossil-fueled dictator.” He’s not the only one. Demand for oil props up anti-democratic governments around the world. See Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Gabon, Iran; the list goes on and on.
Oil corporations dictate far too much of U.S. economic and energy policy, and regular people suffer. As Bill McKibben writes, “fossil fuels have helped build a cruel, violent, and unequal world.” The best way to take on Putin and his ilk — and to stop paying ludicrous prices to refuel your car — is to leave a world of oil and gas behind.
-matt
For my readers in South Florida, join me at the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ (CIW) March to End Modern Slavery in the Fields on Saturday, April 2nd in Palm Beach, Fla. CIW is one of the most successful workers’ rights movements in modern history, and the organization has done an incredible job advocating for the hardworking men and women who feed us by working in the agricultural fields of southwest Florida and beyond. We’ve talked about our admiration for their work before in Sunshine + Microbes, so if you’re looking for a jumping off point, check out this interview Matt did with Lupe Ganzalo, a farmworker staff member with CIW.
The coalition has chosen ritzy Palm Beach as the location for the march because it is home to Wendy’s chairman of the board Nelson Peltz. Wendy’s, along with Publix, is one of the last major corporate holdouts from the Fair Food Program — CIW’s signature policy program. The program asks corporations not to do business with farms that refuse to monitor human rights abuses in their fields, like sexual assault, forced labor, and inhumane working conditions. The Fair Food Program is considered by many to be the gold standard for how to successfully improve working conditions for agricultural workers, and has been lauded by many international organizations.
If you can’t make the march, you can still support. Organizers are asking for donations to help fund a bus ride that will bring migrant workers and their families to the demonstration.
If you do plan to attend, please let me know so we can march together!
-Jackie
I wish I looked this cute the next time I’m crying from choppin’ onions.
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Sunshine + Microbes team
Jackie Vitale is a cook and kitchen educator based in Stuart, Fla. She runs Otto’s Bread Club and is co-founder of the Florida Ferment Fest. Her newsletter explores the intersection of food, culture, environment and community.
Matt Levin is a communications strategist at the ACLU of Texas. He edits Sunshine + Microbes and contributes other scraps to each issue.