By TIM "BLACK COWBOY" THOMAS

Three dollar and fifty-nine cents a gallon. This was the price of regular unleaded gasoline at the local gas station the last time I checked. Before the summer is over, some analysts see the price of gas reaching three dollars and seventy-five cents a gallon and that five dollars per gallon is right around the corner. How is anyone supposed to be able to afford to drive to work, let alone go to the movies or on a family vacation?

The negative effects of the rising costs of fuel are being felt throughout our nation's economy. Food prices are skyrocketing. Airlines are increasing their ticket prices. Costs are rising on most anything that is moved by truck. More and more, people are being forced to choose between spending on fuel, food, medicine or rent. Are these choices that our nation's citizens should have to make? It would seem to me that our elected officials must act quickly to curtail the rising cost of fuel and related consumer products. We are desperately in need of a concerted effort to secure alternative sources of clean, cheap energy for our transportation needs.

Recently issued reports by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) give this nation an additional impetus to proceed quickly and decisively toward non-petroleum based fuels. The IPCC's reports concluded that we only have about ten to fifteen years to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, a national effort would need to be waged on the scale of the Manhattan and Apollo projects to achieve our goals. In the words of former president Carter, our efforts would need to be seen as "the moral equivalent of war".

I am an avid World War Two history buff. One of the most amazing aspects of that period to me was the ability of this nation to transform itself. Government, academia, and private industry worked together to take the U.S. from its position as a second tier military power to a mighty war machine with an industrial capability that that world had never seen. Everyday citizens were either drafted into the military itself or worked in the factories to support the war effort. Throughout America, there was a sense of urgency that we must all work together to defeat the enemy. Now look at us.

We recognize the potential of hybrid technology yet the number one selling hybrid vehicle in America is a foreign made car, the Toyota Prius. Meanwhile, American automobile manufacturers are laying off workers and closing plants due in part to lower demand for gas guzzling SUV's as well as a lack of domestically produced alternative fuel vehicles. U.S. automobile manufacturers say that it will be several years before electric or hydrogen cars are available. Why don't they use those mothballed factories to produce electric, hydrogen and diesel fueled vehicles NOW? During WWII, automobile manufacturing plants were retooled in a matter of months into aircraft and tank production plants. Why were we capable of quickly converting factories from peacetime to military production more than fifty years ago but we can't seem to be able to achieve much less radical conversions today? It doesn't make sense.

Oil companies say that, in the short term, there is nothing that they can do to lower the price of gas. Rising demand from China and India as well speculation from commodities traders are the causes of rising fuel prices. Shouldn't oil companies be investing more of their record profits into hydrogen, bio-diesel and cellulosic ethanol production?

Let's face it, the real answer to curtailing vehicle emissions lies with the development and mass production of electric and hydrogen powered vehicles. Battery and hydrogen storage technology have now reached the point where they are commercially viable. Why aren't they currently being produced?

How much worse does it need to get for our economy before elected officials and the automobile and oil industries to do the things that need to be done? Who will provide the leadership necessary to move us towards energy independence for our transportation infrastructure? Who will lead us and wage the war that we all know needs to be fought? I'm ready to enlist, are you?

"Race and Place" runs on the second and fourth Thursday of each month in the Colorado Daily. The opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Colorado Daily management or staff.