Pop Quiz reveals more than price of gasoline
By Don G. Briggs, President – LOGA (Louisiana Oil & Gas Association)

This is the fourth in a series of articles about the oil and gas industry, and it is time for a pop quiz. No, the answers are not in my previous columns, and it's a fun quiz. Ready?
What price did you pay per gallon the last time you filled up with gasoline?

What price did you pay per gallon on your last water bill? What price did you pay per kilowatt hour on your last electric bill?
Chances are that if you are like most citizens, you are only reasonably sure that you knew the answer to the first question. If we rephrased the questions to say how much did you pay for gasoline, electricity and water, you would feel pretty good about all your answers, because except for gasoline, you only think in terms of total bill not per unit price.

Americans have an obsession with their automobiles and, therefore, with the fuel that makes them operate. We have about 5 percent of the world's population but about one fourth of all the automobiles, and we drive each one more than in any other major industrialized nation.

Automobiles are not just a means for transport. They comfort us; they allow us to express who we are by the type we drive; they entertain us with flat screen TVs; and now, some can even parallel park for us. But they also pollute, and emissions from U.S. automobiles alone are more than all emissions from all sources in Japan.

We gladly pay $1 for a pint of water but almost revolt when we pay $3 for a gallon (eight pints) of gasoline and that includes federal and state motor fuel taxes (38.4 cents in Louisiana). Water is a necessity for life to exist. We only think gasoline is.

I am in a rare business. Not one of LOGA's members has any trouble selling their product - oil. I would be remiss if I did not point out that gasoline is made from oil. After all, in a national survey conducted at the turn of this century, nearly 28 percent of college freshman did not know that gasoline is made from petroleum. Our industry has made numerous efforts to provide educational materials about energy and have gone to educational groups to have them do it for us. But it seems there is no room in the educational syllabus to teach our students about energy.

We (North Americans) have been at the top in our use of automobiles for so long that we think this position is a birthright. But others have noticed the quality of life the auto brings. Here comes China and others. In 1995, China had virtually no privately owned automobiles. By 2005, it had nearly 24 million, and 7 million more were purchased in 2006. It is projected that sometime between 2020 and 2025, China will pass the U.S. in automobile ownership with more than 200 million cars. As well, China is now second in the world in car manufacturing, passing Japan, and it will soon pass the U.S.

The demand for oil and gasoline will rise dramatically, and we may very well date ourselves by remembering the good old days of $3 gasoline. So somebody out there get busy. Find an economical way to get hydrogen from water, and put me out of business - because I am not going to give up my SUV.

Don Briggs is president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association. His column appears in The Advertiser twice a month.