The cost of gas and vacation

Denise Oppenhagen
Published: June 21, 2008

School’s out. No matter what the calendar might say, for all intents and purposes, it is summer.  And it’s time to travel, right?

Not so for many of us. This summer, a new word has been coined — “staycation.” I’m guessing it’s the joining together of stay-at-home” and vacation. Nice little word; has a certain ring to it.  Of course,
there is the other side — the people who figure things will only get more expensive, so they are going to travel to the places they’ve always wanted to go before it gets too expensive. But for now, let’s just
talk about the staycationers.

The biggest reason staycations are staying home, or close to home, is the price of gas. Gas has reached a magic four dollars a gallon. I can remember when gas hit two dollars a gallon.  And then there
was three dollars a gallon. 

Some of the pundits said gas would not ever hit four dollars a gallon. Well, they were wrong. 

And even if you do stay home and don’t use the car much, the cost of our food has increased as well. It takes more money to pay the truck drivers for gas to cart our food across country. Or even for the
pizza delivery guy to bring us dinner. What are we to do?

The key to reducing gas prices is to stop using so much energy. It is NOT, in my opinion, increasing drilling on our ocean shores or opening up the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge. It is reducing our
use. Or finding other energies to use instead; energies that are plentiful.

Honda is coming out with a car that runs on water, although right now it is only available in Japan and soon in California. That is a cool technology and one that is a long time coming. Those who are old
enough will remember when there was a lot of talk about solar energy. Some people, “those tree huggers” put solar panels on their houses. A school in Reston, with a grant from an overseas country, put
them on their roof. This was in the 70’s. You would think that by now, solar electricity would have become more mainstream.  But it hasn’t. Especially in Virginia. 

I’m in Colorado right now for a conference. As we have taken field trips around the area, I have noticed a lot of solar panels in use.  Not so much on houses, although there are a few, but on signs, bus
stops and parks. 

In the short term, it is more expensive to put solar panels in place. But in the long run, they save money by generating electricity. And in Colorado, there are numerous tax breaks and rebates to
encourage people and businesses to go solar (and water, too.)

Not so in Virginia. Our commonwealth is one of the few states that offers no assistance or incentive to use solar energy, either to businesses or homeowners. And it’s a shame because solar can open up
avenues to saving money, especially for our school system and the government.

If we put solar panels on the roofs of even half the schools in Prince William County, we could drastically reduce the energy bills the school system pays (and that would leave more money for classroom
supplies and needed renovations).

If the Board of Supervisors put solar at One County Complex Court, there would also be a drastic reduction in the energy bills the county pays. This could provide resources for other needs.  Wind energy
is not a viable option for us, since we are so suburban (unless you were to count on the hot air at board meetings), but solar definitely is. And it doesn’t pollute. 

This is the time for us to start thinking outside the box. Instead of drilling more and destroying the environment, let us put Mother Nature to work for us.  Think renewable, think cheap (free), think solar.

Denise Oppenhagen is a longtime resident of Prince William County and can be reached at .