Gas lines are back

As part of my job, I drive to Nashville several days a week. Because of the amount of miles I drive, I have been impacted by high gas prices as much as anyone.

Up until recently, the biggest nuisance of this situation had only been the cost of gas. However, everything got taken up a notch when large sections of Nashville ran out of gas over the last week or so.

For those of us old enough to remember, the last time this happened was during the energy crisis of the 1970s. As a nation, we went through a lot of inconvenience, and there were pledges back then that we would take steps to avoid a repeat of this.

Flash forward 30 years and here we are dealing with it again.

When it comes to issues like this, most of us first learn of them through the media. However, when Nashville first started having its problem, I got to see it first hand.

As I drove up there, I got off at my normal exit at Haywood Lane, and as I approached Antioch Pike, I saw a gas station that had lines of cars extended into the street.

I got a small chuckle out of that, but the extent of the problem did not hit me until I arrived at my destination. Person after person I encountered told me of long lines throughout the city.

As I left to come home that afternoon, I found that most of the gas stations in Antioch had completely run out of gas. Even the higher grades that people rarely buy had all been bought out.

Since then, there has been lots of complaining about who was to blame for this problem. Hurricane Ike and its impact on the Texas coast obviously was a major culprit, but others blamed the government and the media for not informing the public that shortages like this were a possibility.

Those criticisms are hogwash. Much of the inconvenience people encountered were caused by an overreaction to the problem. People thought that all access to gas was going to dry up so they reacted like they do when snow is in the weather forecast.

When the slightest possibility of snow is forecasted, people flock to their nearest grocery store and clean out whatever they need. It doesn't matter that we rarely receive substantial snowfall here. People go out and buy food as if they are going to be snowed in for several days.

The same type of pack mentality was on display with this gas shortage. Instead of maintaining their normal buying patterns, people felt they had to go buy as much gasoline as possible.

This resulted in gas stations running out of their product, and it also helped keep prices up because of the high demand.

I personally saw situations where lines stretched several blocks. According to most media reports, people remained calm during all this. However, there were some cases where people tried to cut line and the profanities started to fly.

Even though this shortage is starting to subside, I don't believe it will be the last time we see this. All we are is one natural disaster or international incident away from seeing prices shoot up again.

And if the last couple of weeks are any indication, there will be more runs on gas stations.

This is just another indication that we need to lessen our dependency on oil and gasoline.

Are we learning? At this point, I'd have to say 'no.'