With oil prices soaring to unprecedented highs, many policy makers in Washington have begun discussion about increasing oil drilling. In Fairfield, however, professors have come up with a simple message: stop!
Michael Tucker, a finance professor, has studied the way business has an effect on the environment:
“The larger question is can we reduce our demand for oil?” said Tucker.
Tucker noted that President Bush said in 2006 that we are addicted to oil and we need to seek an alternative energy, only to return in 2008 with the “more-oil-is-way out of our situation” plan.
Tucker is not alone in his view of the oil crisis. David Brown, adjunct professor of ethics, feels that the oil consumption has gone so far out of control it has affected the entire world.
“We are using food to drive cars,” said Brown, who says this moral question is hurting the poor. “One tank of ethanol fuel will feed a person for a year.”
Tucker said that Tom Friedman, a columnist and economist who writes for the New York Times, has been saying for year that we need high prices of oil to decreases our consumption level. Tucker stated this step should be combined with incentives to install solar, wind and other alternative types of energy.
One of the most prominent questions in this debate on oil has been whether or not the U.S. should increase their drilling for oil.
“The environment is a common,” said Brown. He said that the since the price of gasoline is independent of the supply drilling will not stop the speculation of a lower price of oil.
Lisa Newton, a professor of philosophy, has studied the decisions that effect the environment.
“This debate was necessary about 40 years ago,” said Newton. “Drilling will get us nowhere…only a few months supply and then you ruin the land.”
Newton, like both Tucker and Brown, said alternative energy and smarter transportation habits are the ways to go.
One professor did see a positive side to drilling, however.
Associate Professor of Economics Mark LeClair said “If we had made the decision to drill ten years ago, things might be better today … ten years from now we might be having [to make] the same discussion.”
LeClair did note that drilling is a “long-term solution to a short-term price problem,” as well as a catalyst to global warming, and so the decision should be made carefully.
LeClair recognizes that the cost of oil has gone up dramatically notes that it has not been that bad in the United States.
“My heating bill has doubled in the past two years, but it still represents less than four percent of my household [post-tax] income,” he said.
Tucker states that this problem has now found its way to the shores of southern Connecticut.
“The Fairfield community is not isolated from the rest of the world,” he said. “For living off-campus, heating oil this winter will be quite expensive.”
“The energy free lunch is over,” said Tucker. “We can and need to see that every time we pass a gas station.”
The experts can agree that a change in society is needed or as Tucker put it:
“Walking, bicycling, and low thermostats are all in our futures.”
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