Behavior Change Needed. Start Now.

I saw the Star Tribune's story about $5.00 "crazy" gas prices shared online before I saw it this morning in the print version, which is where I read it.

Aside from my initial reaction that most of these people have lived through prices just as high as this, adjusted for inflation, back in the mid-2000s (remember the Bush years?), I already had little sympathy because I knew they were likely driving vehicles much larger than they needed to be, given the way vehicle sizes have been increasing in the U.S.

Reading the story confirmed that. Get this one:

[A woman from] rural Sandstone, Minn., said her two grandchildren have been virtually trapped at her home most of the summer because their friends live at least 45 minutes away. Despite economizing, she still spends $300 to $500 on gas weekly to buy groceries and make other necessary trips.

"I have to travel a lot to get anywhere... Walmart is 45 minutes away. It's 70 miles for a hair appointment."

She said she now spends more on gas than on her mortgage.

"It's insanity," she said as she filled her GMC Yukon...

She drives a GMC Yukon, which gets 11 to 15 miles per gallon, depending on the situation. 

There's nowhere to buy groceries or get a haircut nearby, because no one in her community supported local businesses because they wanted to get the cheapest prices possible while burning cheap gas to get to Walmart 45 minutes away.

(Also... Sandstone is 13 minutes from Hinckley, Minnesota. Is there really nowhere to get groceries or a haircut in Hinckley? Oh yes, I see a store there called Daggetts Fresh Foods — not to mention Chris's Food Center in Sandstone itself. I guess those don't count as "groceries." There are also multiple hair salons in Sandstone and Hinckley.)

Other sob stories included:

• The guy with the Ford pickup who was filling up his speedboat, too, and bemoaning the fact that he can only spew hydrocarbons on the lakes and rivers every other weekend instead of every weekend this summer
• The young family who is visiting northern Minnesota instead of South Dakota in order to save gas money
• The dad who said his six children had to forego seeing the latest Marvel movie
• Others who are having to (gasp!) carpool or combine trips
  

It's hard not to choke on my outrage about how spoiled we are in this country as our habitat heats up, CO2 reaches the highest levels it has been in more than 4 million years, and people are suffering real harms from the climate crisis. Some people are even suffering harm from fuel prices, but these are not the ones.

Meanwhile, the head of petroleum analysis at Gas Buddy, which tracks fuel prices across the U.S., said:

...most motorists could cut gas expense by 10 to 20% by driving more fuel efficiently. He said he recently squeezed an extra 125 miles out of a tank of gas by slowing from 75 mph to 55 mph on the freeway and taking other steps to reduce consumption.

"People give up on their plans rather than figure out how to drive more fuel efficiently," De Haan said. "It's the one thing Americans completely overlook."