[Mb-civic] EXCELLENT AND REFRESHING - Going cold turkey on oil - Robin Chase - Boston Globe Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

  Going cold turkey on oil

By Robin Chase  |  February 3, 2006  |  The Boston Globe

US? ADDICTED to oil? And so what?

Clinically, addiction means dependence and a loss of choice, and the 
worst kind of addiction is both physical and psychological. We seem to 
have the worst kind. We would find it very difficult -- or maybe 
impossible -- to get to work without a car. We can't buy food, see our 
friends, go to Little League games, ski for the weekend, get our mothers 
to the hospital. And we think our car is a reflection of ourselves.

Think about what you pay at the pump today. Now double it. How does that 
fit your budget, week in and week out? I wonder if we'll turn to crime?

We will probably be able to cobble together solar, wind, and nuclear 
power sources to satisfy our electrical energy demand, but 95 percent of 
our transportation sector is fueled by oil, for which the future of 
substitutes is bleak. Both biofuels and hydrogen won't be coming online 
in quantity for another 20 years. Lingering concerns over supply and 
CO{-2} emissions make biofuels an imperfect substitute; hydrogen fuel 
faces difficult technical and daunting infrastructure supply challenges.

The reality is that over the next decade, we are looking at hybrid cars 
and $5 a gallon gasoline with increasing prices as we compete on the 
global market for the depleting oil supply.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse lists 13 ''Principles of Drug 
Addiction Treatment." Subsidizing the drug -- paying work-related tolls 
and parking payable with pretax dollars, giving $400 million to oil 
companies to encourage the building of new oil refineries, and paying 
for roads and highways with federal dollars -- isn't on the list. A 
little over half of the principles do seem to apply:

No single treatment is appropriate for all individuals.

Treatment needs to be readily available.

Effective treatment attends to multiple needs of the individual, not 
just his or her drug use.

An individual's treatment and services plan must be assessed continually 
and modified as necessary to ensure that the plan meets the person's 
changing needs.

Remaining in treatment for an adequate period of time is critical for 
treatment effectiveness.

Counseling and other behavioral therapies are critical components of 
effective treatment for addiction.

Particularly insightful is the principle, ''Treatment does not need to 
be voluntary to be effective." We know we'll be kicking and screaming on 
the way to rehab, but don't we wish someone with the power would do that 
dragging?

Lastly, and thank goodness for us, ''Recovery from drug addiction can be 
a long-term process and frequently requires multiple episodes of 
treatment." We just might have the time to do what is needed if we stop 
whining for subsidies that will only prolong the addiction, and let 
those with the muscle (that means you, legislators) make us face our 
addiction head on.

I wish us all good luck.

Robin Chase is founder and former CEO of Zipcar. 

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/02/03/going_cold_turkey_on_oil/
-------------- next part --------------
Skipped content of type multipart/related