Driving, busing, flying, cruising, or riding the rails. Freedom from locational stasis is an essential part of high-energy, modern life. Travel opens up the world and is an environmental experience. It brings people together in goodwill.
Witness the travel boom despite higher motor fuel costs this year. The American Automobile Association estimates that 45 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home this weekend, almost double the number in the pandemic year 2020. This forecast, AAA states,
is slightly higher than last year and sets a new Memorial Day weekend record with 39.1 million people traveling by car and 3.66 million expected to fly to their destinations. While gas prices are higher than last Memorial Day weekend, average ticket prices for flights are lower than last year for those who booked early.
And don’t forget the “other” category.
Travel by other modes is expected to go up by 5% with 2.2 million people traveling by bus, train, or cruise over Memorial Day weekend. Alaska cruise season kicks off this time of year, and the popularity of Alaska cruises is a driving factor in this category’s growth.
This demand is a reminder to politicians that travel is a quality-of-life issue, and fuel affordability and availability matter. Transitory shocks such as the Pandemic and the Iran War give way to normalcy, where, in the U.S. at least (excepting for California and other Blue States) the petroleum outlook is robust.
Running out of oil? No, we continue to find more than is consumed. Declining air quality? False, the criteria pollutants continue to fall even as oil combustion increases. Security of supply? Plenty of home-grown oil to draw upon and export, short of political interference.
What is natural will overwhelm the ideological aspirations of those wanting to lower oil demand in the U.S. and beyond. As Daniel Yergin noted decades ago in The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power:
Hydrocarbon Man shows little inclination to give up his cars, his suburban home, and what he takes to be not only the conveniences but the essentials of his way of life. The peoples of the developing world give no indication that they want to deny themselves the gains of an oil-powered economy, whatever the environmental questions. Any notion of scaling back the world’s consumption of oil will be influenced by the extraordinary population growth ahead.
“Happy Motoring,” as the old Exxon commercial used to say. “Let’s Go!” as Shell advertised. “Go Gas,” advertised Texaco. “A full tank of freedom,” as Marathon proudly stated. Fear not, drive in good conscience. Get your kicks on Route 66 or wherever the open road takes you this Memorial Day weekend.
