We’ve all heard the infamous line, “Back in my day, [insert item] cost a nickel!”  Anything from a candy bar to a soda, a movie ticket to a train fare.  As time progresses, the value of things changes as well. However, most price shifts take place over a reasonably long period of time.  This image does not apply to the current oil crisis facing the country. Oil -- or, for far too many minds, gasoline -- is an increasingly valuable commodity.  Also termed “Black Gold,” oil is now at such value that a gallon of gasoline holds nation-wide averages of $2.484 (Newsday, Tuesday Aug.  16, 2005), a 34% increase from just a year ago, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).  It is no revelation that this has an effect on motorists everywhere. Simply put, it costs more now to get from point A to point B than it did before.  On one hand, there is mild optimism that this rise in prices might force people to depend on fuel-efficient cars or public transportation.  Realistically, however, even “fuel efficiency” is not “fuel freedom.”

 My first vehicle was a 1991 Ford Explorer, a hand-me-down from my father I remember distinctly that twenty dollars could get me 12.5 gallons.  My friends and I thought gas was a little expensive back then, but we were dead, dead wrong. It wasn’t expensive at all compared to the current pricing, an astronomical figure which continues to rise.

If our only worry was regarding our road warriors, rising oil prices wouldn’t be a big issue. But it’s unfortunate that -- after years on our little blue planet -- we depend on oil for more than just our cars.  We use oil for virtually every necessity of modern life that we take for granted:

Electricity?  Many power plants rely on coal or oil.

Heating?  Natural gas, oil, or at best, a wood-burning furnace are utilized.

Cooking?  Many stoves use a gas flame, and many barbeques operate on propane.

Transportation? Everything from air travel to sea shipping and railroads would grind to a halt if gasoline vanished.

 Suffice it to say we are in dire straights. Oil is not growing more plentiful, and the whole world is only growing more thirsty for it.  It is unrealistic to say we need to become oil-free. The technology to banish oil from all spheres of life -- from the large amounts used in generating electricity to the small amounts used in Vaseline -- is years ahead of our time.

Working to become oil-efficient, fighting to minimize oil dependence on foreign nations, and striving to advance our technology both in the department of consumption and pollution are necessities we can ill afford to overlook.  The skies of Los Angeles are, from what I’ve heard here on the East coast, much clearer than they used to be. Yet, they still are smoggy compared to what they could be.