Scott Swanson
Feeling a little pinched at the pump these days?
Gas in Oregon costs nearly 75 cents more this week than it did a year ago. Most of the pump prices locally were hovering around $3.10 to $3.15 per gallon for regular and near $3.50 a gallon for diesel this past weekend.
I have to admit that I’ve tried to ignore the price increases as much as possible for the past year or two, but it’s getting harder. You can only manipulate your household or business budget so much. In other words, you can only swear off eating out for so long.
As I was driving back from Albany last week with a truckload of freshly printed newspapers, I started doing a little mental exercise – really fleshing out some of the implications of this fuel situation. The results made me feel about like I do when I look at the milk prices at the grocery store.
We’ve had it pretty good here in the United States for the last couple of decades. The economy has been healthy overall, even if it hasn’t been here locally in Sweet Home. Fuel has been a lot cheaper in the U.S. than in other industrialized countries, where a lot of the higher prices are due to taxes. In the Netherlands, for instance, fuel cost $6.73 a gallon last spring, $4.12 of that in taxes, according some statistics I found on-line. In France it was over $6 as well, for the same reason. In Japan, gas costs $4.50 a gallon.
Experts blame the recent astronomical rise in fuel prices primarily on the skyrocketing cost of crude oil, which was close to $100 a barrel at the end of last week. I remember when, not long ago, $40 a barrel was shocking. Plus, oil supplies are tight around the world right now and the U.S. dollar continues to be weak against major currencies, which means stuff we buy from overseas costs more.
Fuel prices actually aren’t quite as high as they were last May, according to the AAA, so you may wonder why my sudden concern. The fact is that prices, like the incoming tide at the beach, keep surging higher and receding less. Soon, $3 a gallon – and probably substantially more – will be routine.
Doing the math, it becomes clear that if our incomes don’t surge correspondingly, something’s got to give. For many local residents, there’s not much to give.
Some, who commute to other communities to work, are just going to have to swallow it unless they can figure out an alternative, such as taking the East Linn Shuttle or carpooling.
But for those of us who spend a lot of time in Sweet Home, who live and/or work here, a trip to Lebanon or beyond to do business suddenly costs twice as much as it did three years ago. A few alternative technologies are out there – hybrid cars, biodiesel, etc. – but they are costly and limited right now. Judging from the progress they’ve made toward developing new technology, it’s not very clear that big car makers are really interested in electric cars or fuel cells or other alternatives.
So when we look at paying $10 to make a trip to Albany and more to go beyond, some of us are going to have to start thinking of how to economize – such as traveling less.
One alternative would be to see things change in Sweet Home. The fuel prices could provide the incentive to existing and prospective business owners to offer more goods and services than are currently available.
If local residents can buy necessities here, they may think twice about driving 30 miles or 50 miles round-trip to purchase them elsewhere.
Revitalizing the downtown is a topic that’s being discussed at various levels among business owners, residents and city officials. Revitalization almost certainly must involve a multi-pronged approach – offering goods and services that residents need as well as setting Sweet Home up to take advantage of the travelers and tourists who pass through.
It’s going to take collective smarts and unified purpose to make that happen. People who live here have to decide they want the local business district to improve.
Come to think of it, those fuel prices could have a silver lining if they help motivate us to do what it takes to make things better for Downtown Sweet Home.