From Food Stamps To Gas Vouchers (11.8.12)

Psalm 73,9-10: "They set their mouth against the heavens and their tongue ranges the earth. Therefore, His people turn this way and that, and like profuse waters are gulped down by them."

Talk radio verbalizes the thoughts and expectations that are right there on the cusp of our future.

One recent caller from Bridgeport CT mentioned that with so many folks on food stamps (47 million), why not gas stamps too? (he called them vouchers)

The host might have thought the caller was joking in that he ended the conversation with the typical and hasty condescension of this format, but I don't think so.

Gas has been more or less $4/gallon since 2006, that's about $300-400 dollars a month.  This is not small change for most folks who have already felt the press of their downward trending real incomes after Wall Street failed to succeed in 2008.

A recent World Affairs Council video presentation recently inspired me to write this piece and understand that there is no such thing as domestic "energy independence." This phrase is handy campaign rhetoric, but all energy is part of a truly global  market.

And there are two major players calling the shots in this global energy market, the multinational oil companies and the OPEC cartel.  

So, we could begin requiring our bailed out "domestic" automakers to design our cars to run on many different fuels, like gasoline, and compressed natural gas, and hydrogen-methane, and alcohol.

Forget the converter kits (from gasoline to LNG) that have popped up all around the world. Let's begin with a multi fuel design that breaks the oil stranglehold on our domestic economy and politics.

There's a lot of natural gas here in this country. Why not start now in earnest using it to our domestic advantage?

Fiat already has such a vehicle, the Siena Tetrafuel, which has been out in Brasil since 2006.

Imagine if Exxon and Mobil had to compete with other energy companies for what we put in our tanks.

Imagine if GM and Ford's and Chrysler's engineers had to actually come up with a true multi fuel vehicle that was worth buying?

Washington, what say you to our caller from Bridgeport?

He showed no real interest in anyone being more dependent on Washington, but he brings up gas vouchers in the same breath as food stamps.

Could such gas stamps or vouchers be just one more storm or world crisis away?

But, surely we can all live without gas for our cars.

Really?

Tell that to the folks in NY and NJ, post storm "Sandy," just trying to get to work and make a living.