Drive To Survive.

This is a long post, but it's an important issue, and one that affects everyone, every day.  

From the AP:

       Horns blaring in a deafening fanfare, the convoy of truck drivers was impossible to ignore as the group rode into the nations capital. Members of Truckers and Citizens United circled the National Mall before parking their tractors and dump trucks at RFK Stadium. From there, about 100 protesters marched and took shuttles to the Capitol for an afternoon rally under a downpour of rain.

     The national average price of a gallon of regular gasoline is a record $3.51, according to a recent survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.The price for diesel _ used to transport most food, industrial and commercial goods _ is $4.20 a gallon.

     "The high price for oil is hurting our economy," organizer Mark Kirsch said. "This isnt just about truckers, this is about United States citizens overall."

     To bring relief, they are urging Congress to stop subsidizing big oil companies, to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves, and stop exporting oil from Alaska, among other things.

     Truck drivers are planning a similar protest Thursday in New York City and another unspecified event May 5. Organizers said Wall Street is responsible for driving up prices with no regulation from Congress.

     I've worked in the freight business since 1984, a few years after wide-scale trucking deregulation led to an "every-man-for-himself" mentality and expectations of a latter-day Gold Rush for anybody with a truck, a pallet jack, and a wallet on a chain.

     Today, driver turn-over is extraordinarily high, hours are insane, unionized common-carrier consolidation has led to more "super-carriers" and fewer regional companies, and independent long-haul drivers are routinely expected to "cook" their logbooks by running many more hours per day than is legal or safe to meet ever-tightening delivery schedules.

     And this is just the "over-the-road" sector. The nation's harbor draymen--many being independent "owner-operators"--endure endless pier congestion that drives up operating expenses while their idling rigs spew belching exhaust everywhere in their wake.  

     Michael H. Belzer wrote about these matters and more in "Sweatshops on Wheels: Winners and Losers in Trucking Deregulation", published in 2000. The Los Angeles Times has published many quality articles on the trucking industry in recent years, particularly those focusing on Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors.     

     Truckers--both union and non-union--are some of the hardest-working people I've ever met, and they continue to bust their asses keeping the country moving; often sleepless, some aided by stimulants, and most at a salary well below pre-deregulation levels. 

     I met a union trucker yesterday who hauls for the film industry. He told me that 17-hour days were "routine". He said he was constantly exhausted and has trouble staying awake while he's on the road.

     That was comforting.   

     I don't know the short-term answer to high fuel prices. The long-term solution, of course, lies in alternative fuels, but corn-based ethanol is certainly not it, and a transition to anything is many political battles and years away.

     I've personally experienced the lengths Big Oil goes to in search of Black Gold, and it's mind-boggling that the world's energy concerns don't appear to be at the absolute forefront of a race to replace a finite resource.

     When your core product is rare and will one day be gone, you need a new product! 

     Drilling in ANWR ain't the answer, either.

     We have failed ourselves in our collective hemming and hawing over conservation. This was deemed to be at critical mass back in the 1970's, great rhetorical platitudes were spouted from every corner, increased mileage standards were established, and then? What? Stalling, then the SUV and, finally, the Hummer?     

     In an effort to enforce conservation, perhaps a prohibitive cost should be associated with the wasteful operation of personal vehicles that are useless in urban and suburban settings, such as the Hummer. Consumers of giant vehicles that are of the "mine is bigger than yours" variety--popular in car-crazy California--should have to pay for that conceit. Maybe vehicle registration fees should be uniformly tied to a minimum fuel efficiency standard, and adjusted upward the lower the vehicle's at-purchase per-gallon standard is. As the vehicle ages, fuel-efficiency could be measured in a program similar to California's current smog-check system.  

     (The same registration standard should not apply to diesel tractor rigs, tandems, cargo vans, or bobtail trucks, as those commercial vehicles are a logistical and economic necessity, and are vital to the country's supply chain.)    

     The South Bay is a long way from Iraq, but sometimes it's hard to tell, judging by the number of behemoths cruising down the Esplanade in street-clogging advertisements for gluttonous, irresponsible consumption.

     Yes, it's a wealthy area. Yes, many of these country-club buffoons can afford to drive them. They can probably afford to buy a shoulder-harnessed rocket-launcher, too. But should they?   

     The fact that a clueless few can afford to be wasteful doesn't make it responsible behavior--especially in light of dwindling energy supplies--and no amount of caterwauling about the "power" of a "corrective" free market will change my mind about that.  

     But it's obviously not just the Hummer. That bad ride is emblematic, though, of a self-absorbed, wasteful mentality. I also see guys who clearly struggle to afford their truck payments lumbering down the street in gleaming Moron Mobiles with two-story tires and a thirst for gas that rivals a drunk's lust for a drink. Their tag fee shouldn't be as low as their I.Q.

     Our current bind is further seen in the lackadaisical attention government, the U.S. auto industry, and energy companies have paid to conservation and fresh alternatives in their entirety. China and India--huge, emerging consumers of a rapidly-depleting finite resource and not known for their interest in conservation--are actively competing with the U.S. for energy. Combine all this with the fact that the U.S. government treats energy companies like whiny, spoiled teenagers in need of a larger allowance, and are you surprised that Toyota kicks GM's ass?

     And that oil is kicking ours?  

     Or that we are funding both sides of this "War on Terror"?  

     That war is the only element of this story that could be infinite.     

     Famed oil man Dick Cheney--architect of this country's current (and secretly-devised) energy policy--was quoted on April 30, 2001: "Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy." 

     You mean like yours, Dick?  

     Will the next president agree? Or will the next president challenge our "best" minds to come up with a viable solution? Will we lead the world in developing a new fuel, thereby proving that sound policy and good business are not mutually exclusive?

     Or will we piss away the ticking time?     

     Corporate Media needs to stuff the stupid questions about preachers, patriots, and pins, and engage the candidates in a dialogue about just what the hell is going to fuel the future of the American Dream before it becomes a tapped-out nightmare from which we can not awake.