True Cost of Oil is more like $15 per gallon

According to Lester Brown in "Plan B 3.0 Mobilizing to Save Civilization" the true cost of a gallon of gas once you include all the subsidies and externalities is more like $15 per gallon.

The Hidden Health-Related Costs
Your penalty: Higher state and local taxes, increased pollution clean up costs and higher medical costs for you and your family.

The Hidden Costs of Air Pollution
Your penalty: Higher healthcare costs, sick kids and higher taxes.

The Hidden Costs of Water and Land Pollution
Your penalty: Destruction of land, killing of aquatic life, increased water pollution cleanup costs and higher local taxes.

The Hidden Costs of Thermal Pollution
Your penalty: "Dead" lakes devoid of aquatic life, increased clean up costs, higher local taxes and destruction of our recreation areas.

The Hidden Macro Economic Costs
Every recession in recent history has been immediately preceded by an oil or natural gas price run up. These "oil shocks" result in the loss of hundreds of billions of dollars for our economy and the economies around the world.
Your penalty: Economic downturn, lower stock market, loss of jobs, higher taxes

The Hidden Costs of Nation Security
In these times of increasing political volatility it makes absolutely ZERO sense to have our country held hostage to the unstable oil countries in the Middle East and their constant turmoil. The annual cost to the American taxpayer of keeping our military forces protecting our oil supply runs in the tens of billions of dollars, if not hundreds of billions. This is NEVER reflected in any "cost" of using fossil fuels, but it is coming out of YOUR tax dollars. This situation will only get worse as the rest of the world advances economically and needs more oil.
Your penalty: Higher taxes to pay for the military, military causalities and less money devoted to domestic non-military uses in this country, like highways, urban infrastructure, education and health care.

The Hidden Costs of Global Warming
Your penalty: Worst case, worldwide climate change, economic chaos, mass starvation and the end of our way of life, as we know it now. These are very serious penalties and very American should be aware of this situation.

We have to wake up and realize that we need to turn to renewable sources of energy now. Not in 5 years, not in 10 years and not when it clearly "profitable," whatever that means? Since when is it "profitable" or "cost effective" to destroy the ONLY planet upon which we live?

We cannot keep depleting the planets natural "capital." It is not replaceable or renewable.

We have to muster the political will and change the tax structure to reflect the "real" cost of all alternatives. If our elected officials remain "unconscious" to the growing problem, then they will have to be removed and new leaders be elected who are conscious and have a focus on the energy problem and are willing to create a plan to address it NOW.

When you look at ALL THE NUMBERS it is abundantly clear that we have to accelerate the sustainable path and we have to do it now. At that point people will clearly see and finally realize that renewable resources are by far the cheapest "real total cost" alternative and also the best for them, the planet and future generations.

In Conclusion

We can lower our healthcare costs, reduce our air, water and thermal pollution, develop a more stable economy, create more jobs and become a far more secure nation if we just begin this inevitable process of evolution toward renewable energy sources.

We need to apply, what has always been America's greatest "assets" - technical ingenuity, creative innovation and our "can do" attitude.