Wednesday, February 21, 2007

For Lack of an Energy Policy, the War Was Lost (From the Get-Go)

From Reuters 2/21/07: "U.S. retail gasoline prices jumped 5.5 cents over the last week to their highest level in six weeks, the government said on Tuesday. The national price for regular unleaded gasoline rose to $2.30 a gallon, up 5.6 cents from a year ago, according to the federal Energy Information Administration's weekly survey of service stations."

The Wyoming Gas Prices web site reports that stations in Evanston have the lowest prices at $1.86-$1.87 per gallon, and Thermopolis, Lander, Buffalo, and Star Valley report the highest prices ($2.19-$2.29 per gallon).

And I guess they’re going up.

Cheyenne must be in the middle somewhere because stations here didn’t show up on the list. So the $1.99 per gallon I pay for ethanol at The Corner Stop on West Pershing Avenue in Cheyenne is still a pretty good deal.

The National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition reports five stations in WYO now dispensing ethanol (E85), including the station at Warren AFB in Cheyenne. In fact, many military bases are now stocking ethanol, including U.S. Marine Base Quantico and the Pentagon in Virginia, Malmstrom AFB in Montana, MacDill AFB in Florida, and Fort Lewis in Washington state. Most of these facilities are closed to the public, but it’s encouraging to see the feds jump on the E85 bandwagon for members of the military.

There is irony in the fact that their brothers and sisters in arms are in Iraq precisely because the U.S. didn’t have an energy policy and ethanol and other biofuels were not in wider use before this. It’s been a deadly irony for some of them. A costly mistake for all of us.

No comments: