BrianGarst.com

We’ve been told that we’re in an energy crises. Over and over it’s routinely asserted that any solution will require leadership. Leadership, of course, implies top down direction from governmental elites. It seems few people today think anything can be accomplished without such centrally directed leadership. They are wrong.

High gas prices cut U.S. driving for 8th month: government

Americans scaled back their driving during June by almost 5 percent in response to soaring fuel costs, the government said on Wednesday — a day after announcing the biggest six-month drop in U.S. petroleum demand in 26 years.

The Transportation Department said U.S. motorists drove 12.2 billion fewer miles in June compared to a year earlier, marking the eight month in a row that travel declined in the face of record gas prices as Americans change their driving habits, buy more fuel-efficient cars and switch to public transport.

“Changes in consumer behavior have essentially erased five years of growth in gasoline demand,” the American Petroleum Institute said on Wednesday in a separate report that showed gasoline use during the first seven months of 2008 fell by 2.1 percent to the lowest level for the period in five years.

This is, or should be, the common sense predicted outcome. Consumers adjust their behavior in response to changes in prices. Facing higher energy prices, users will seek more cost effective traveling methods. Knowing this, where is the crisis we hear so much about? What, exactly, do we need leadership for that can’t be accomplished by the dynamic free market? The fact of the matter is there is no energy crisis, but rather a political crisis, otherwise known as a presidential election.