This past summer, I would gas up my car every week at the local Shell Station. I always thought the Shell was the nicest and cleanest station in our town and the best part was that each pump had these little televisions that gave you news and sports scores as you pumped your gas.
One morning, half-awake, I leaned against my car filling the tank before work and the little television at the pump was listing the day’s news stories — only this time, there was a story about a suicide bombing in Israel that killed 16 people.
So as I was filling my gas tank, I began to think. The money I was paying to the gas station for my gas would eventually make its way halfway across the world to the Middle East.
According to CNN.com, Saddam Hussein donates the equivalent of $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers. And according to a report issued by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Saudi government finances families of terrorists, including suicide bombers who kill Israeli citizens.
Right then and there, I realized as I was filling my gas tank, I was partially contributing to terrorism against Israel. My money was paying for barrels of oil from Middle Eastern countries and some of that money was used to finance suicide bombers.
Admittedly, it’s not like I was personally handing wads of cash to a terrorist, but it was still an unsettling feeling to know that every day, millions of Americans are contributing to murder and don’t even realize it.
Not only that, but every time we dock our H2’s and Escalades at the pump, we also help fund some of the most repressive regimes in the world — countries where ideas like democracy, civil liberties and sexual equality don’t exist.
Often the Bush Administration touts Saudi Arabia as our economic and political ally, yet in Saudi Arabia a person can be beheaded in the town square for crimes like drug trafficking, armed robbery or homosexuality. How can our country be so closely associated with such an intolerant society? Over 20 years ago Reagan decried a totalitarian regime like this one as an “Evil Empire,” but today we are apparently buddy-buddy, as long as they provide a steady supply of gas.
By continuing to demand an exorbitant amount of oil at a low price, we Americans are breeding hatred, intolerance and terrorism, because that is what these Arab nations are using our gas money for. And the worst part is, all of this is completely preventable.
In MIT’s November edition of Technology Review, there is a fascinating article about how the auto industry is shamefully dragging its feet in producing more fuel-efficient cars. To cite an example, the 2002 Chevy Blazer gets 18 miles per gallon, 2 MPG less than the 1985 model.
Not only that, but for the past 17 years, Congress hasn’t bothered to raise the Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards, the guidelines that regulate exactly how much gas new cars are allowed to guzzle.
According to Mark Fischetti, author of the Technology article, if the auto industry wanted to, it could raise the average fuel economy of American cars from 27 miles-per-gallon to a whopping 46 within five years. Fischetti argues that such a vast decrease in gas consumption could lower the United States’ oil dependency by well over two million barrels a day, or 75 percent of the oil coming from the Middle East.
However, due to friendly relations with D.C., the automobile industry is in no rush to bring about these changes, as there are absolutely no incentives for them to do so. Using loopholes and heavy lobbying, the auto industry has managed to avoid mass-producing electric cars, gas-electric hybrids and more efficient combustion engines for years.
In his column last week, New York Times writer Thomas Friedman pointed out that the only thing standing in the way of progress in the Middle East is oil. Since oil is so easy to cultivate in that region, many countries do not feel the need to invest in their workforce in order to see revenues.
Friedman also points out that Lebanon, the closest thing to a democracy in the Middle East (aside from Israel), got that way because they needed to invest in their people, not in drilling equipment.
For years we have heard the environmental and political reasons to reduce our dependency on oil and still no one seems to care — but what about the moral ones? U.S. citizens keep these decadent and unfair governments in power and these are governments that deny the freedoms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to their citizens. Cutting off the oil supply is a great way to tell the Arab world to wake up and smell the 21st century.
But what can American citizens do when their government ignores them? They can use their other ballot, the almighty dollar, to do the talking for them. As Americans, we need to stop buying gas-guzzling SUVs and start buying into fuel efficiency.
If demand goes up, our market will adjust to meet that demand, meaning we will see more fuel-efficient cars on the road. Buying gas from Hess, Sunoco and Sinclair gas stations will also make a statement, as none of these companies obtain their oil from Middle-Eastern sources.
I am tired of thinking that every time I stop at the pumps I could be paying the salary of the next Muhammad Atta. If our president wants us to fight tyranny and terrorism, fuel efficiency is the best place to start.
Brendan Cavalier, a junior in the School of Management, is a weekly columnist for The Daily Free Press.
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