Re: “High prices at the pumps,” Point of View, April 15
Hopefully, a silver-lining will be extracted from the ‘high gas price problem’ in the form of less gratuitous fuel waste, including by individual consumers.
For one thing, I’ve frequently walked past parked vehicles idling for many minutes, even in very warm weather.
Sometimes I’ll also see the exhaust spewed by a vanity vehicle, a metallic beast with the signature superfluously very large body and wheels that don’t at all appear used for work or family transport. They’re the same gratuitously huge monsters that when parked roadside hazardously block the view of short-car operators turning or crossing through stop-signed intersections; and they look and spew thick exhaust as though they might get about 25 gallons to the mile.
Inside each is the operator, typically staring down into their lap, probably their smartphones. I couldn’t help wondering whether they’re some of the people posting complaints onto various social media platforms about a possible gas tax/price increase, however comparatively small. Here in Canada, the carbon tax, though it’s more than recouped via government rebate (except for the high-incomed), induces much pastime complaining.
Meanwhile, mass addiction to fossil fuel products undoubtedly helps keep the average consumer quiet about the planet’s greatest polluter, lest they feel and/or be publicly deemed hypocritical.
Frank Sterle Jr.
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