Energy Poll: 8 in 10 Want Drivers to Drop SUVs

Energy Poll: 8 in 10 Want Drivers to Drop SUVs

Really interesting numbers in a post-Katrina, post-peak oil poll that doesn't hew to any one party's agenda.

The American devotion to free-market capitalism has always been honored more in the breach, and heavily tempered by self-interest both on the business side and for consumers. Now that Americans are paying something approaching prices the rest of the world pays there's overwhelming support for regulations mandating higher fuel efficiency, tax breaks for alternative energy, public transportation, and even price controls, a phrase I haven't heard bandied about much since the Nixon era.

I'm sounding unusually non-collectivist here, but I wonder how this will translate into individual action in the long run. I feel a certain self-righteous smugness as I bike to work, or as I shopped for a small, fuel-efficient car that I drive roughly twice a week. I've made deliberate life-style choices to accomodate this, such as living withing biking/walking distance of my job, and I'm fortunate to be in good enough health to be able to do so.

I know that not everyone has the luck or luxury to do such things - but I will go so far as to say many, many more people COULD choose to do so, and far more could be done to facilitate it.

For example, here at my government office the parking issue is invariably addressed in terms of "where can we find more parking spaces," and never considered as a question of "how can we encourage people to use other transportation."

Will the sudden public interest in these issues fade if and when the immediate crisis fades? Will the ripple effect of this natural disaster finally end our love affair with the solo-piloted car?

Maybe.

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On the other hand, the survey shows about a 20 point spike, and a reversal in position, on items like drilling in ANWR. One more nail in the coffin of environmentalism as a mainstream issue, as the abstract of a wilderness few will ever see collides with the here and now of $3 a gallon at the pump. Sadly it seems we've bought the fallacy that a good environment is bad business. While we're showing great long term foresight in some things, we retain a bottom-line nearsighted focus on our own wallets.