$4 a gallon for gas? They’re not even trying

When I heard that Hurricane Katrina was going to damage refineries and offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, I quickly left work and filled the tank of my Bonneville in anticipation of a shortage that never came.

My bunker mentality notwithstanding, I was relieved to see no hoarding by consumers or rationing by stations. Of course, I was aghast at prices the next time I filled up: $3.29 per gallon for regular unleaded at the Central Avenue Circle K. I kept that receipt from the summer of 2005 for months, evidence of what I thought would be the high-watermark in U.S. fuel prices during the first decade of the new millennium.

Boy, was that stupid!

As I write this, the average price for regular in the metro Augusta area is $3.51. Nationally, it’s $3.62, and analysts forecast it could head well above $4 a gallon in the high-traffic summer.

What I say to that – and this is the point where you might throw your newspaper down in disgust or, if you’re an online reader, spit on your computer screen – is: Bring it on! I hope gas prices hit $4. In fact, I want them to climb even higher.

It’s not because I want the sheiks, the commodities brokers and the oil companies* to get even richer – which they will; it’s because I want a riot.

Whoa, hold on there, hoss. I’m not talking about a violent “let’s-go-loot-a-liquor-store-and-steal-a-TV” kind of riot; I’m talking about a major social, political and economic upheaval.

I’m talking about passing the tipping point where the people and leaders of this nation are forced to make real changes in how it consumes energy and invests in technology to make alternative energy sources as economically viable as fossil fuels.

We have never come close to that tipping point, not even with dino juice trading well above $100 a barrel.

What we’ve seen so far is what always happens during a run-up in oil prices: Oil companies boost their “alternative energy” marketing campaigns to make you think they’re actually working on ways to sell you something other than oil (e.g., BP as “Beyond Petroleum”); politicians (those who aren’t on oil companies’ contribution lists) hold meaningless hearings to question the industry’s “windfall profits”; and, last but not least, upset motorists direct their blind rage at anyone who will listen, usually local service station operators (whose gasoline profits actually go down as pump prices get higher).

Then, when prices fall or stabilize – as they always do – the innovation stops. Nothing changes. Everything goes back to normal until the next excuse for a price spike comes along.

Like it or not, we’re not going to see major changes in mass transit, urban planning, car fuel efficiency or alternative fuels until we reach the tipping point.

ONE MORE POINT ON TIPPING: It’s a reflection of the level of service, not an entitlement. At least, in my book, anyway.

TALE OF TWO CORPORATE CITIZENS: Augusta’s favorite environmental whipping boy, Olin Corp.’s manufacturing plant, now has another strike against it.

Competitor Occidental Chemical Corp. announced last week it has ceased all mercury-based manufacturing processes in North America, leaving Missouri-based Olin’s chlorine, caustic soda and bleach plant in south Augusta as one of only four remaining producers using mercury-cell based technology.

Dallas-based OxyChem, which operates a sodium silicate plant in south Augusta near Olin (small world, eh?), already appears to be marketing itself as the good-guy chlorine producer.

“Our ability to offer all of our caustic soda and caustic potash customers product made in a non-mercury cell process reinforces our position as an industry leader,” OxyChem President Chuck Anderson said in a statement issued last week.

OxyChem’s decision will no doubt embolden Olin’s critics, namely Washington-based environmental group Oceana, the driving force behind the anti-mercury campaign.

I can see the new protest signs now: “Olin: Can’t you be more like OxyChem?”

NO TAX INCENTIVES ON THIS LURE, YET: Aside from sheer jubilation, the recent announcement by Bass Pro Shops to build a megastore at the Village at Riverwatch site has produced another common reaction: “What are we giving them?”

It seems to be a fair question, considering destination retailers such as Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s** have commanded huge tax incentives from the communities they have built in over the years. I won’t get into the nitty-gritty here, because writer and corporate watchdog Greg LeRoy has already written a comprehensive piece on the subject ( www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=19290).

Let’s just say the two retail chains have no problem using their status as tourist attractions to secure economic development goodies usually reserved for major industry. That’s caused smaller competitor Gander Mountain – which The Augusta Chronicle reported this year was scouting Augusta as a possible site for its first store in Georgia – to go on the offensive.

So far, Richmond County officials have not given Bass Pro Shops any taxpayer money or government grants. They are, however, working on a $25 million tax-exempt industrial revenue bond to help the retailer finance its proposed 100,000-square-foot store.
The bonds carry no cost or liability for taxpayers. The store qualifies for the bonds because of a loophole for sports- and tourism-related developments.

Of course, no one knows what incentives the Village at Riverwatch developer and property owner offered to lure the retailer to the site near River Watch Parkway and Interstate 20. Whatever it was, it was attractive enough to make the company stop looking at property near the Lewiston Road exit on I-20 in Columbia County.

SINCE WE’RE ON THE TOPIC OF CONSTRUCTION: Residential construction in the metro area was off to a slow start in the first quarter. The value of residential construction contracts through the end of March, $133 million, was about 15 percent lower than the $156 million reported during the same period last year by McGraw-Hill Construction.

Now for the sunny side: Non­residential contracts, which include everything from office buildings and hotels to apartment complexes and churches, were up 62 percent – from $53 million in 2007 to $86 million .

WE DON’T NEED NO EDUCATION (OR DO WE?): Here’s something to think about at graduation season: The 59,000 Georgia high school dropouts from the Class of 2007 will cost the U.S. government nearly $2.8 billion in lost tax revenue over their lifetimes.

That’s according to the Washington-based Alliance for Excellent Education, which calculates lost revenue based on the lower earning power (which equals lower income taxes) of the average high school dropout compared to diploma holders. Nationwide, the 1.2 million dropouts could have put an additional $60.72 billion in tax revenue in the federal coffers over their lifetimes, the alliance said.

Of course, I’d like to think all of those tax collections would have been directed toward education as opposed to offsetting the $58 billion in “unreconciled transactions” between federal agencies that auditors found in last year’s budget.***

* And the Russians and that Hugo Chavez character.

** Which my friend Joe Converse said I gave short shrift to last week. Sportsmen consider Cabela’s the “Cadillac” of outdoor stores, he said.

*** That’s right, the federal government lost more money in 2007 than Exxon Mobil made in profit. I’m in the wrong business.