Are Lower Gas Prices Really a Good Thing?

With the economy slowing there hasn’t been much to look forward to recently. The one positive thing has been the lower gas prices at the pump. With everyone trying to save money where they can, the lower fuel prices have helped many people. In the long run however, lower gas prices aren’t necessarily a good thing. With the world economies slowing many people are trying to save money any way they can and are turning back to less eco friendly solutions. From purely a “green” point of view the lower gas prices are a bad thing. If prices stay low for a long period of time it could potentially slow development of alternative fuel.
In the 70’s America had a major oil shortage which eventually ended and oil prices went down. Before the 1973 oil embargo many car companies were making big inefficient cars. Once the oil crisis hit many consumers stopped buying the bigger cars at the time for more efficient compact cars. Eventually those times were forgotten and now we again have big SUV’s and trucks on the road today. It did take many years for this to happen, but with the knowledge of the past we may not go back to bad habits.
A Wall Street Journal Article “How to Kick Our Oil Addiction despite Plunging Oil prices” gives good ideas of how we can stay in the “green” trend without going back to our bad habits. There are many good ideas that hopefully are considered in the future to promote alternate fuels. The biggest solution to this problem is public awareness and involvement. If people understand and have learned from previous times we might be able to stick to the eco friendly path.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122660968559325625.html
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/1973-oil-crisis