By Syed Arif Hussaini

September 02 , 2005

To Ease the Pain at the Petrol Pump

Granted that it is hard to accept stoically the current gas prices, granted also that buying gas now has become virtually a grudge purchase, yet there appears to be no sense in fuming and fretting about a situation that you are totally incompetent to rectify or to take out the grudge against any particular entity.
The easiest thing to do is to attribute it all to the government’s machination to satisfy the greed of its key players and big energy businesses that are now collecting their pound of flesh. You may point out that the recently approved Energy Bill focuses on promoting alternative sources of energy rather than introducing any measure to reduce the current price hike. But then President Bush has himself admitted that he has no magic wand to wave and bring the price down.
He is unwilling though to touch the enormous Strategic Oil Reserve, as any release from it would not only reduce the market price, but also the profits being reaped now by big oil companies and speculators.
His henchmen attribute the price hike to the spurt in demand from China and India owing to their burgeoning economies and an expanding middle class with a newly discovered taste for motorcars.
China with a population of 1.25 billion, 4.5 times that of the US, has less than one-tenth of the number of vehicles than in the US and India has much less. The current world consumption of oil is 79 million barrels a day. US consumption is 9.5 million barrels a day, equivalent to the total production of Saudi Arabia – the biggest producer - or 12 % of world consumption.
The Energy Bill recently passed by the US Congress places no cap on the profligate consumption of oil in the country. That would have rubbed against the grain of big oil companies – a measure Bush Administration meticulously avoids. He must be credited for being true to the salt of the major contributors to his election kitty.
His trust in market forces to rectify the situation might be misplaced this time. Government intervention would have expedited the remedy – at least a temporary one.
Some experts have gloom-and-doom predictions, including a recession as a result of high oil prices.
In a situation like this, would the common man who lives from pay check to pay check be able to maintain his cavalier consumption of gas as he did a couple of years back when he could buy it at a little over a dollar a gallon? The inevitable ripple effect on the prices of his other consumable items, groceries for instance, are ripping an extra 30 % from his pockets.
There is an inverse correlation between his anxiety level and the level of the petrol in the tank. Less petrol for the same amount means more anxiety, if not anguish.
He cannot expect a reprieve or respite from any segment of the oil industry. Of each dollar spent at the pump, 55 cents go for crude oil, 18 cents for refining, 19 cents for taxes and the remainder on marketing. Since the Sales Tax constitutes a percentage of the sale price, the higher the price, the more the tax, a welcome development for the state coffer, and no state has charitably cut down its intake.
The average individual has to make lifestyle changes necessary to reduce his overall expenses to make room for higher payments for gas. He will have to re-evaluate priorities and amend his errant ways – a blessing in disguise. When medical charges and insurance premiums increased sharply, a vast majority of the people gave up unhealthy habits and foods, took up exercise programs.
The pain at the pump has triggered consumer creativity. Swiftest solution had to come from consumers themselves. For commuters, a daily round trip on bus is looking much better than driving and hunting for a parking place. Car-pooling has also started to look attractive and time saving considering the absence of traffic jam in carpool lanes.
Here are some more tips to minimize your pain at the pump.
Fill up your tank early in the morning when it is cold in the underground tank. Later in the day it warms up and expands giving you less BTU per gallon. A full tank reduces evaporation. Fill it up when it is half empty.
Keep your tires fully inflated; that reduces drag. Overcoming aerodynamic drag is crucial to improving fuel consumption. According to the Department of Energy, a loaded roof rack can decrease your fuel economy by as much as 5 %. An extra 100 pounds in the trunk will cut your car’s fuel efficiency by about 2%. If you are obese, go immediately on a starvation diet. Life might become insipid but you sure will save on gas. If you do succeed in shedding the fat, the price hike at the pump will pale into total insignificance.
Don’t even think of shifting the baggage on the roof rack to the back seat and the kids from there to the roof rack. You may get even arrested, without achieving any reduction in the drag.
Better leave the heavy golf bag in the garage instead of carrying it all the time in your trunk in the remote possibility of your stealing time from work to hit the greens with your buddies. That has not happened and is unlikely to happen. Likewise, you may remove the ski rack on the roof and the bicycle rack in the front or back of the car.
Turning off the air-conditioner and opening the windows will increase wind resistance and eat up the savings. Enjoy your AC.
Avoid filling up at the stations near the freeways. They charge more, it is true. But there is no truth that prices are raised on weekends. They change all the time. Greed is subject to no timetable.
Avoid “jackrabbit” starts by bolting for the open road the moment the light turns green. Hard acceleration causes your engine to lock into a less efficient “fuel enrichment” mode. If you press the accelerator to the floor, chances are that you will soon be standing on the brakes on the next red light.
In city driving, almost half the energy needed to power your car goes to acceleration. Your fuel economy will improve by five to ten percent, according to the Department of Energy, if you avoid unnecessary braking and acceleration.
The hybrid car is generally accepted as good for your wallet and the environment. Indeed, hybrids like Toyota Prius or Honda Insight are fuel-efficient and give 40 to 50 miles per gallon. And undoubtedly, they reduce smog-forming pollutants and carbon dioxide emissions. But, consumers are concerned more with their own financial health than with the environment. The hybrid is not exactly a panacea for the price hike.
If you want to shift to a hybrid to save on gas, you might consider recalculating the cost/benefit ratio. The car will cost some $5,000 more and the insurance premium will be much higher too. An industry expert has estimated that gas has to sell at $5.60 a gallon for the hybrid drivers to break even if they drove 15,000 miles a year for over five years!
A Chinese proverb says: “When rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it”. Why then fume and fret about the oil industry? There is nothing you can do to counter the machinations of its greedy potentates, scions of king Midas. So, relax, stay home and cancel all your vacations. - arifhussaini@hotmail.com


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