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In an attempt to curb the billions of dollars spent annually on subsidizing the cost of gasoline, the Iranian government has implemented a fuel rationing program. As would be expected, this program has been met with a lot of opposition and some sporadic violence.
According to an article written by Nasser Karimi and published by the Associated Press, Iran’s problems stem from not having enough refinery capacity to meet the demand for gasoline:
“The rationing is part of a government attempt to reduce the $10 billion it spends each year to import fuel that is then sold to Iranian drivers at less than cost, to keep prices low.
“Iran is one of the world’s biggest oil producers, but it doesn’t have enough refineries, so it must import more than 50% of the gasoline its people use.”
Anyway, reading about this caused me to wonder what it would be like if the United States were to have another “energy crisis” like what happened twice during the 1970s, or if the Federal Government decided to impose limitations on the amount of gasoline we could purchase each week or month.
Surprisingly, I think the outcome wouldn’t be that bad.
(Notice – I didn’t say anything about it being convenient.)
Obviously, there would be a huge initial uproar; complaining would be non-stop, people would be calling for Congressional investigations, gasoline and oil companies would have their lobbyists working around the clock, etc.
I think you get the idea – things would be pretty bad at first.
But after a short while, I think that we would find a way to adjust and live with the fuel restrictions, much like what happened during the 1970s. And while the adjustment would probably be a big pain in the rear, I do think plenty of good could come from the restrictions.
Think back to what the average American car looked like pre-1973 (the first energy crisis). It was huge, generally inefficient and gas guzzling. However, after the first energy crisis, we began to see more compact (usually foreign) cars begin to show up on our roads.
These cars were not only smaller in size, but had smaller, more fuel efficient engines. As people began to buy these cars in response to increasing fuel prices and restrictions on the amount of fuel they could buy, the pain at the pump and the inconvenience associated with the limited amount of gas you could buy began to diminish slightly.
Okay, now fast forward to today. You mean to tell me that if there were restrictions put on the amount of gasoline we could buy that there wouldn’t be a a nearly immediate attempt to get more fuel efficient cars on the road? That there wouldn’t be a greater emphasis on finding reliable and renewable alternative fuels?
I would be willing to bet that if the Federal Government put massive restrictions on the amount of gasoline each driver could purchase, plug-in hybrid cars would be in mass production within six to nine months.
I’m of the belief that as long as gasoline is cheap, convenient and readily available there will never be a strong push for more fuel efficient vehicles or cleaner, renewable fuels. While we all like to complain about $3 gas, in the grand scheme of things, gasoline still cheap. And with our ability to purchase how much we want whenever we want, it’s still convenient and readily available, too.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not wishing another energy crisis on us, or hoping that the Federal Government imposes fuel restrictions.
Unfortunately, I don’t know if we’re going to turn the corner unless we have no other choice.
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I don’t agree with rationing, but i would be more than OK with let’s say $7-8/gallon. Because at 8$/gal I would sell my 200HP V6 and buy something smaller, and the guy that buys my car I assume would have enough money to pay for the gas. But with rationing, I better dump that car at the junkyard, nobody would buy my car just to look at it for half month.
But anyway, if some “shock therapy” is needed to throw away the trucks, vans and suvs, then, that’s it
Or some gov program like “Bring your SUV now and leave with a new, reliable compact and $1000″. Would that work?
with the massive federal budget spent freeing / protecting our oil resources ( tell me we are freeing the iraqi people), our country could be a leader in alternative energy, ( put out the subsidy, and business will follow). maybe a fuel crisis would do some good.
p.s. unless electric/hybrid cars are plugging into clean energy, they are only relocating the pollution.
first, they would only ration it if they had to, cause the gov earns taxes off each gal you pump. if they hike the price, the taxes follow it up and the government is set to earn even more off it unless someone caps their earnings. as tax is a %, not a set amount. rationing would take place where fuel is already through the floor and gas stations are running out too quick, to be fair they would ration it across buyers. but theres other impacts by this stage, food and goods that your oil ships will be passing on the costs in their products, services would go bankrupt. cabbies out of work, any mobile business is out of business if they cant pass on the costs to the public that is spending all their money on fuel to drive to work, to earn the money that buys the limited fuel…. repeat. the big 3 would lay off workers as car sales drop out of the sky. your 9 trillion deficit would come back to eat the US into a recession as it will be unable to support the surge of unemployeed. your imports would stop and send even more people out of work as other countries deny loans on the goods your paying already today. you army would have troubles supporting its mass, your airlines would feel the barrel prices and passengers drops and be grounded. your tourism industry would collapse.
i only pray oil lasts long enough for the world to get itself off of it. for the well being of the economy and the planet itself. the governments of the world would never ration unless food and armies required it. no oil, peak oil or a warming planet is the least of concern when china and india surge skywards in their thirst for it, competing for the dying oil fields. although they both will hit serious water disasters before we get to this by the looks.
the world could be heading for a series of horrific events – of the likes that none have ever recorded.
or we could heading for clean, green and peaceful future where all humans see a healthy and meaningful way of life.
… well that rant got away from me. sorry this is a draft too ;p
I would like to think that people would start car-pooling or taking mass-transit as an easy way to save on using their gas for routine things like going to work. That way your ‘allotment’ of gas could be used to goto the beach or vacation or whatever. Although on the other hand, we Americans tend to have that ‘I will do what I want when I want’ attitude.
I think the majority of the reason we CONTINUE to pay for gas no matter what the price, is that its still relatively cheap.
Don’t forget that Dick Cheney says that “the American way of life is non-negotiable.”
Based on this, if we run out of cheap, easy fossil fuel products I will hold my breath and eat dirt until someone fixes it.
Granted, it would be great to get some of the better technologies on the market, but let’s not hope for rationing or any other drastic change!
Fuel is NOT CHEAP at $3.00 a gallon!
$1.00 a gallon is cheap.