As a young Long Beach State college student driving a ‘56 VW convertible I bought for the outrageous price of $175, and changing my own oil (bought for 19 cents a quart at the old Cal Store on Carson and Cherry), who would have ever thought that I’d be in the same predicament as every other person with a car: trying to figure out how to not use it. I don’t think I’m alone, amazed at the fact that what I thought was a limitless supply of cheap gas would put me and all the other 17 million California car owners scrambling around looking for a solution to this energy crisis, if for no other reason than the simple fact that without gas for my car, it becomes a totally useless hunk of metal with rubber tires.
Having some reasonable environmental credentials, I feel that there must be a big bang solution out there to bring this existing crisis to an end. There isn’t though. In this giant world chess game board we’re all part of, one move sets the stage for another and with the stakes that have now become so high, the wrong move can set off a series of events that can become irreversible.
We as Californians are about 50 years behind our east and mid west neighbors when it comes to quick and efficient alternate transportation opportunities. Sure, we have a lot more urban sprawl and our center of gravity is not as easily defined. The one up that the east had over us was that we’re still one of the youngest settled areas in the nation and, unfortunately, did not pay attention to other transportation methods that evolved such as the “L” train in Chicago, and the subway in New York.
So now it’s time to play catch up football. It’s never too late and I disagree with those that feel grasping for more energy production in all its forms is wrong for us. More solar and wind power, especially when we look at the vast open spaces of our mountainous regions, along with the reality of present day nuclear technology for generating electricity would surely increase the availability of natural compressed gas to power more cars and heavy trucks than the massive amounts powering outdated electric power plants scattered about our state.
We’re in economic turmoil once again. We’ve turned on ourselves and unless we can come to grips with the necessity to pound some sense into our legislators to become a little more creative than spending time conjuring up useless legislation, we’ll continue the slide into complacency. We must better understand and take immediate action on understanding how to end this unfortunate and reckless shift of world economic monetary power to the Middle-Eastern oil mongers frolicking in the billions of dollars we’re transferring to them.
It’s a matter of survival now. We need instead to devote the time, money, and yes, California muscle and energy to dig our way out of this hole we’ve dug for ourselves before it becomes even deeper and bigger.