Has The Gas-Powered Vehicle Addiction Finally Reached A Tipping Point?

For anyone who depends on driving for their livelihood and otherwise, passing a gas station on the road adds to a long-running nightmare. As it stands, the average price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States right now is $4.164, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That’s a new all-time high, eclipsing the previous record of $4.103 set in 2008. Prices are likely to increase further because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict—even factoring in small immediate-term price decreases—which has squeezed an already tight supply of oil and gas even tighter.

As GOBankingRates previously reported, GasBuddy expects the average price to hit $4.25 a gallon by May and probably stay above $4 until at least November. Coupled with the fact that inflation rates are at historical highs, all drivers of combustible-engine vehicles are feeling the pain. While it is hard to see any positives in this, there are potential silver linings to the current cost-of-energy crisis if viewed through the right mindset. Specifically, years from now, we may find that the high cost of gas globally was the tipping point needed to break our addiction to both combustible-engine cars and our dependency on personal vehicles as the overly preferred method of consumer transportation.

Maximizing crude oil permits here in the United States is not an easy solution because the U.S. is already the world’s top crude oil producer, which makes sense as it is also the world’s largest oil consumer—using approximately 20% of the world’s total. Oil prices were already rising before Russia invaded the Ukraine, and a drop in oil permits was not a major contributor to today’s short supply. Notwithstanding its prominent clean energy priorities, the Biden administration’s oil and gas permitting numbers have kept pace with the early years of the Trump administration. According to a CNN analysis of Bureau of Land Management drilling permit data, President Biden’s administration approved 3,537 permits to drill in its first year, more than the number issued in each of the first three years of Trump’s administration.

Prior to the current gas crisis, COVID-19 decimated public transportation, especially in places like Los Angeles and elsewhere where transit-use numbers were already dropping and there is still heavy automobile dependence. California’s Bay Area is one of the slowest regions to recover, from a mass transit perspective. Remote work is literally killing public transit. But, if gas prices continue to remain at historic highs and inflation continues to skyrocket, the silver lining to the all of these price hikes could be a saving grace for public transit, which needs to get passengers back on board and schedules back to pre-COVID-19 timeframes.

However, state measures to alleviate gas price pain may delay the return to transit that is likely needed. In recent weeks, the governors of Maryland and Georgia signed laws temporarily suspending their state’s gas taxes, while Georgia also offered $1.1 billion in refunds to taxpayers in a separate action.

California’s average gas prices hit a new state record weekly high of $5.856 per gallon in late March, approximately $2 higher than one year ago, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. California has the second-highest gas tax in the country at $0.51 per gallon. California’s governor is now proposing rebates of up to $800 to alleviate gas troubles. For California residents without cars, Governor Newsom wants the state to pay for their transit fare for three months. But perhaps it would be equally (or more) effective if drivers received $800 rebates for choosing a recurring commuting method of transportation other than single-occupancy driving in hopes of promoting transit use—which is direly needed in the state.

The pandemic-induced impact to public transportation hit especially hard in places like California’s large metros and other areas where automobile use remains high. And, along with a low number of riders, there is a shortage of workers for mass transit and other local government positions, resulting in limited schedules on many transit lines. This causes longer travel times and negatively impacts the customer experience.

Reductions in public mass transit will likely continue to be painful until ridership demands force transit agencies to expand service and better meet customer expectations. This is a tricky chicken-and-egg quagmire that may possibly soon be solved by the ever skyrocketing gas prices and lack of enough new electric cars to replace gas-fueled vehicles.