Lower gas prices come at a cost

On your way to campus, you see it out of the corner of your eye: three bright-red numbers that tell you gas is only $1.39. ONLY ONE DOLLAR AND THIRTY-NINE CENTS! You veer over across two lanes, and rush to pump that cheap, sweet liquid into your tank. You think the petroleum gods must have blessed your college student budget. You don’t feel any guilt, just pure joy. However, perhaps we should consider a few facts before we celebrate these low prices, and think, “Should we really be that happy about them?”

The short answer is: While low gas prices are good for us consumers, they are detrimental for the environment.

The reason gas prices have fallen under $2 across the nation is because of a boom in oil extracting technologies. North America is rich in shale oil, which for centuries has been hard to extract. Using hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, this oil can be extracted more easily.

The process involves drilling into the earth and then cracking the layers of rock deep underground by injecting water and chemicals through wells. This increases the pressure on the rock, making the oil and gas held in the shale flow into the cracks and back up through the wells.

Fracking might sound like a simple and easy method for getting a much-needed resource at a cheaper price, but it comes with hefty environmental consequences.

By cracking the rocks and releasing chemicals into the ground, there is a possibility of causing small tremors and contaminating groundwater supplies. For example, take the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the world’s largest sources of freshwater. The aquifer (an underground reservoir) supplies drinking water to over two million Americans.

Imagine if this precious water supply was contaminated by oil, natural gas or other chemicals. Millions of people could be drinking flammable gases instead of clean H2O. It’s not any different than having polluted tap water from algal blooms, something many Toledoans can relate to.

Additionally, fracking doesn’t only threaten water contamination, but the process also consumes large quantities of water. According to the USGS, each fracking operation uses millions of gallons of water, which effectually creates wastewater.

The direct environmental impacts of fracking are not the only negative consequences, either. Economically, fracking has caused and could continue to cause an increased dependence on fossil fuels that contribute to global climate change.

Because fracking has helped American oil industries extract more oil, we began buying less from foreign countries. In response to this, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries began to offer oil at much lower prices in order to compete with the fracking boom. With both a decrease in domestic oil prices and a decrease in foreign oil prices, gas prices have continued to plummet.

Gas price’s plummeting might sound like a good thing, but in the long run, it damages attempts to make using renewable energy more widespread. The decrease in oil and gas prices negatively affects investments in clean renewable energy and fuel efficient vehicles. As gas prices plummet, people buy more fossil fuel-powered cars and fewer clean-energy hybrids and electric cars.

Cheap oil also makes it hard for renewable energy companies that utilize solar, wind and hydroelectric power to compete with big oil companies. Energy companies that depend on fossil fuels have to pay less to produce their energy, meaning that renewable energy companies will struggle to offer prices at a rate that can compete. This could destroy stock prices of renewable energy companies and even bankrupt them.

Unfortunately, if we want a cleaner and more sustainable world, we are going to have to cough up the money to do so. Living sustainably and efficiently is not cheap from a short-term perspective, but we must see it as an important investment. Just because cheap gas prices might not affect you directly, or have not affected you yet, they do affect the global climate.

Regardless of how much we are personally affected, our personal contributions are really important to curbing greenhouse emissions because it is very unlikely that the government will obstruct the growth of the fracking and oil industries, and if the government won’t take a stance, then it is up to us: the consumers.

Maybe it isn’t reasonable to expect college students to go buy a hybrid car, but there are tons of ways to reduce your personal oil use while still saving money.

You should invest the extra money you are saving from cheap gas prices on reusable water bottles and grocery bags. Plastic production makes up close to 10 percent of petroleum usage in the U.S. Don’t ever waste money on bottled water when the tap water is just as clean.

Additionally, eat less processed foods, less poultry, less meat and less dairy. A substantial amount of oil is required to produce, package, transport and keep from spoiling these foods. The more locally your food is grown, the less transportation and less energy it takes for it to arrive on your plate, which means you should go the local farmer’s market on Saturdays.

Last but not least, if you can manage to walk more and drive less — do it. If you can carpool, don’t hesitate. If you can take a bus instead of your car, give it a try, because it saves on gas.

Don’t let the cheapness of gas prices fool you into feeling good about filling up your SUV. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and in the case of cheap gas, that reaction can be hard to see sometimes. However, be aware of the environmental costs. We understand that it might not be possible to stop buying gas, but at least be aware of the negative consequences it brings with it.