Is expensive gas a real bargain?

I drove past a local Starbucks last week and noticed a line for the drive through that wrapped around the entire building, out of the parking lot and into the adjoining service road where two more cars waited with blinkers on to join the parade of coffee seekers.

Just beyond this line, a neighboring gas station declared the price of gasoline at $3.83/gallon.

I suspect most of the people in those cars were like me, and bemoaned paying nearly $4 a gallon for gasoline. Yet, I doubt many of them hesitated to pay just as much for 16 ounces of high-octane coffee.

I had to ask myself which product is really overpriced? Filling my 20-gallon tank with Starbucks mocha would cost about $640.

Soaring gas prices are lowering the balance on everyone’s bank account. Not just at gas stations but everywhere we turn prices are up. A basic round of errands like filling up the car, buying groceries and replenishing household necessities can quickly consume $300.

This is a serious, unsettling, painful matter. Economists estimate that every additional penny at the pump takes roughly $1 billion out of overall spending. Half of all adults say the rising cost of gasoline has had a big impact on their personal lifestyle, and low-income people are suffering the most.

What’s most disturbing is there are no apparent quick fixes. There’s no “federal bail out of the housing finance system” available on this issue.

Today’s high gas prices may well be the beginning of a Great Depression of our generation. Or perhaps expensive gas is a blessing for America and the world. The fact that there are no “easy ways out” of this crisis is triggering three important, long-overdue actions.

First, gas and energy prices are prompting necessary, realistic discussions on the local, state and national level about our energy needs and how to meet them.

An alarm went off on this issue 30 years ago and we’ve been hitting snooze ever since. Now we must wake up and get real. Extremists on all sides will be forced to either compromise or become irrelevant.

If we’re going to heat and light our homes, operate our vehicles and fuel a viable economy, we must begin to aggressively employ all of our potential energy sources – everything from geothermal and wind to nuclear, coal and our domestic oil supplies.

Second, high energy prices are forcing us to be more efficient, at home, in business and in government. Sales of motorized scooters increased 24 percent nationwide in the first quarter of the year, while sales of SUVs are plummeting.

People are searching for ways to drive less – coordinating rides with friends, consolidating errands, or just staying home. High operating costs are prompting farmers to employ high-tech innovations that decrease expenses by using less fertilizer, less water and less fuel.

The biggest beneficiary of efforts to use less energy, spend less money and meet our long-term energy needs will be the environment. Saving money is a much better motivator than even the direst warnings of global warming. I can easily ignore climate change but I might walk or bike to work to lower my gas bill.

Our energy challenges are daunting, but they have huge potential to trigger American innovation. As Plato said, necessity is the mother of invention. We are a nation of inventors.

I have great faith that American ingenuity unleashed in force on this challenge will create new energy solutions that will forever change the way we work, play and live. We are going to suffer along the way, but the changes will make us more efficient, more active, and will be good for our planet.

In the long run, expensive gas may be a bargain for all of us.