Americans are on the economic front lines of the war

I have heard my own high school students argue for many years that the only way to significantly shift America's attitudes about gasoline and mileage efficiency is to raise taxes significantly to create enough motivation for people to invest in better fuel efficiency.

They were and are idealistic and possess a keen sense of justice and a deep concern for how they will be affected by a changing climate. 

The Russian invasion and the skyrocketing price of gas may be creating a "live" experiment on whether their proposed gas price strategy will work.

Each American uses about 560 gallons of gasoline per year, based on average driving habits. That would mean that an average driver will end up spending about $560 additional each year for every ONE dollar increase in the price at the pump.

It looks like we are nearing a TWO dollar increase quite soon over prices from a year ago, so $1,120 additional seems likely. The average American would pay a total of $2,240 annually for gasoline if gas prices were $4/gallon. They look like they could go higher, at least for some time, so this is a significant increase, particularly for drivers in lower income brackets.

I am among those likely driving far less than average miles per year (hooray for retirement and working from home!), but no one looks forward to triple digit gas costs each time we fill up.

With today's announcement banning the import of Russian oil, we need to prep for this new reality, and I assume this is not the only increase in price we are looking at.

STILL, I am in favor of banning the oil and becoming more self-sufficient regarding energy. Sometimes nations need an extra push to make changes that most people would see as positive over the long term. Those short term bills are important, but when we are seeing images of dead Ukrainian children indiscriminately targeted by Russian troops... do we really have much choice here?

As Yogi Berra said, "The future ain't what it used to be," and the last couple weeks have proven that the world can shift quite quickly, for better or worse.