During the last several years, gas prices have risen and risen. Along with gas prices, consumer awareness of the environment and what needs to be done to save it has also risen. "Green" movements began to spread across the country, and conversations about sustainable lifestyles and greener living began to open up all over the world. With gas prices high, and most of the population convinced that global warming is a real concern with a real human cause, it began to look like the world --and America in particular-- was ready to make a change. It was beginning to look like America's love affair with the gas-guzzling SUV was coming to an end.
According to the Transportation Department, Americans cut down on their driving each month from the months of November, 2007 to June, 2008, when U.S. drivers drove up to 5% less each month than they did the month before. From November of 2007 to June of 2008, U.S. drivers drove 53 billion miles less than they did during the same period a year before.
And they began doing it with more fuel-efficient vehicles. During the first half of 2008, new car sales --that is, sales of fuel-efficient new vehicles-- were up a full 11% while the rest of the auto industry struggled. Long waiting lists were created for electric and hybrid cars. And sales of trucks and SUVs were down a combined percentage of almost 19%. Along with the rest of the world, Americans felt the bite of gas prices on their bank account, and began to conserve fuel.
Demand for fuel has been steadily rising in the U.S. since 1982. But the first six months of 2008 saw the largest decline in oil demand we've seen in the U.S. in decades. Americans began to use 800,000 barrels of oil less per day than they'd used in previous years. And environmentalists and conservationists began to have hope that the world had finally learned to be more conservative with fuel use. That the consumption of fuel would continue to fall, and the world's ecosystems might have a chance to heal.
But as of autumn of 2008, things in the U.S. have begun to change. The price of gas in America is tightly tied to the price of oil, which is affected by demand. With the demand for gas falling and falling, the prices have finally begun to fall, as well. Here at the end of 2008, gas prices are close to half of what they were during the summer.
With lower gas prices, people are driving again. And even though many experts consider the current gas prices to be only a temporary respite, many Americans are going right back to their old gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs.
While sales for these largely fuel-inefficient vehicles have not yet reached the levels they enjoyed before gas prices began to rise, SUV and truck sales have improved hugely during the last several months. According to Chip Perry, CEO of AutoTrader, "...there continues to be a market for larger vehicles like trucks and SUVs and search and viewing activity for these larger used models on our site, spurred no doubt by falling gas prices, indicate people might be ready to start buying more of these vehicles again."
And so the environmentalists who worry about the environment and the governments whose job it is to protect it have their work cut out for them. Though it began to look like conservation would be a new way of life in America, with the rise in gas use and SUV and truck sales, it's beginning to look like the conservation efforts of the last year were only a blip on the radar. When gas prices aren't taking a bite out of their bank accounts, most Americans go right back to their old ways of doing things.
Will rising SUV sales have an effect on the world and the environment in the long run? Maybe, and maybe not. But whether or not you believe in global warming, the numbers supporting the un-sustainability of most Americans' lifestyles are irrefutable. And if Americans aren't willing to make a long-range effort at conservation, what does the future have in store for us?
Saint78
55 / Female
Comments: 5
Posted on March 9, 2009, 11:25 pm
I have a beef with gas guzzlers too.I have a 70's issue of Mother Earth News. In it a man converted his Ford Ranger from gas to solar showed photos of whole system.If it could be done privately why not by large vehicle companies?
