Column: Detroit must make flexible-fuel vehicles

The Eagle-Tribune
Published: December 11, 2008 02:09 am
by Clifford D. May

The price of gasoline is down — from over $4 a gallon to about $1.70 a gallon. That's because the price of oil is down from almost $150 a barrel to around $40 a barrel. This is good news for moms who chauffeur their kids to soccer games, music lessons and religious school, and for truck drivers moving products from factories to stores. The savings should trickle down to consumers as well.

But, as the TV pitchmen say, these prices won't last! They are the result of a global recession, which has suppressed demand. When the economy recovers — as we pray it shall — demand will increase, not just in the United States and Europe but in India and China and elsewhere. Unless there is additional fuel supply to meet that growing demand, prices will push skyward again.

Another word for yo-yoing prices is volatility. Volatility is bad for businessmen who need to make long-range plans and families attempting to budget. It puts additional stress on an economy already sickly due to the myopia of Wall Street tycoons and the incompetence of the politicians paid to keep an eye on them.

Read the full story