Celebrate Oil Prices

From the Letters section of the August 27th Chicago Tribune

People ought to stop grumbling about rising oil prices and consider the many positive virtues of that development.

Increased oil prices inevitably will result in decreased use of automobiles, trucks and airplanes.

That will result in less environmental pollution, less traffic congestion, fewer air travel delays, and fewer deaths and injuries.

It will reduce pressure to build more roads, bridges, airports and parking lots, which will result in more open space, lower taxes and more commercially productive and job-producing land use.

The incentives to create rural subdivision sprawl will be diminished, two important consequences of which will be preservation of farmland and reduced need to increase local school taxes.

Consumer interest in mass transit and car-pooling will increase.

People will take more interest in walking and biking, which will produce increased personal fitness and decreased need for medical services.

Political support for serious alternative energy development and for serious research to identify ways to use energy more efficiently would be expected to increase.

More money spent for gasoline and heating oil will mean less money spent for foreign-manufactured goods, particularly non-necessity goods.

That will reduce money flows to foreign nations and consequently reduce the financial ability of foreigners to bid up world oil prices.

Reduced spending on non-necessity goods will result in reduced pressure on local landfills.

Reduced use of oil will also make the U.S. less dependent on foreign energy producers, and our political leaders in turn will be less inclined to embarrass us by launching foreign wars.

Our national image both here and abroad will improve.

These consequences obviously are good and will only improve as oil prices increase.

Oil price increases, therefore, should be cause for celebration.

Robert E. Mann
Geneva, IL