‘Defending freedom is gonna cost’ at the gas pump: Today So Far – KUOW News and Information

This post originally appeared in KUOW's Today So Far newsletter for March 8, 2022.

If you haven't gassed up your car yet, you might want to do that sooner than later. Gas prices have never been this high, nor have risen so fast. Lines at the station are likely to be as long as the wait at a Northwest car wash on the first sunny day of spring.

Why? One answer, as President Biden stated this morning: "Defending freedom is gonna cost. Its going to cost us, as well, in the United States. The situation in Ukraine and tensions with Russia are influencing the oil market.

As of this morning, the United States is "targeting the main artery of the Russian economy," President Biden said as he announced a new ban on Russian oil. Biden said that oil money is fueling Putin's "war machine." To ease the strain, the U.S. is opening up some of the country's reserves.

Big picture: In 2020, for the first time since the 1940s, the United States was a net exporter of oil; we're making a lot of the stuff ourselves. Beyond that, there are 9,000 already-permitted sites in the U.S. that oil companies can tap into right now to get more oil. Of course, there is an even bigger picture: relying on all this oil isn't working out so well for us. The environment, our health, and our safety suffer.

President Biden noted that not all of our allies in this effort can afford to implement such a ban (though the UK is phasing out Russian oil over the coming year). The U.S. gets the majority of its petroleum (including crude oil) from Canada and Mexico (63% combined in 2020). Russia makes up about 7% of what we import. So there's some wiggle room. President Biden's message today wasn't just for the American people or Russia. It was also targeted at oil companies: No profiteering. There is some concern that companies may take advantage of the current crisis to drive up prices, because they can.

The U.S. is delivering a few other hits to Putin via the the tech sector. Microsoft and Apple, for example, are cutting off business in Russia, further pushing the country into digital isolation. Netflix has also shut off service in Russia, meaning the country is at risk of missing out on Stranger Things Season 4 in May. Russia is also going without Minecraft, Oracle, Cisco, and Samsung all have nixed service in the country. Tech has also found a way to support the people in Ukraine. Americans have been using Airbnb to pay for rentals without the intention of using them, providing some income during this time.

A Bainbridge Island man has found his own way to support Ukrainians trucking in supplies himself. Dale Perry may live in the U.S., but his business is in Ukraine. His company provides energy in the country. When Russia attacked its smaller neighbor, he went over to Poland where he had contacts. Using his own money at first (now he takes donations), he began trucking supplies to the border. He then takes orders for more supplies, goes shopping, and the cycle continues. Read more about his story here.

I'm going to sneak in one final bit of news. As I am writing this morning, news is coming in that the Seahawks are trading quarterback Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos. Now, I don't really watch baseball, but I know that this is big news for a whole lot of folks in Seattle who have watched key players from the Super Bowl days trickle out the door. Personally, I keep track of such players by watching current Beacon Plumbing commercials. That's how I know Bobby Wagner is still there.

One of the portraits featured at the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial. The site is located on a former ferry terminal where Japanese-Americans from Bainbridge Island were placed on a boat after being removed from their homes during WWII. (Libby Denkmann / KUOW)

Petroleum has been with humanity for a long, long time. The word "petroleum" is an evolution of the Byzantine Greek term for "rock oil." And while our ancestors across the globe knew they could burn it, and even pave their ancient roads with it, rock oil was often used as medicine. One historical source notes that medical texts traveled to Europe from Persia, detailing uses for everything from eye diseases to reptile bites, respiratory ailments, and epilepsy. It was apparently also good to "warm the brain." Mixing petroleum with the ashes of cabbage stalks was a good treatment for scabies.

In North America, the Seneca people and Iroquois dug large pits to mine it. They turned it into fuel and also healing lotions. You may know its modern equivalent, "petroleum jelly."

ALSO ON OUR MINDS

Across the U.S., a "back-to-work March" has begun. With the omicron variant now waning, companies are officially calling on employees to return to the office this month, while also trying to stay flexible enough so as not to lose those who prefer to work from home. Many firms are starting with "soft openings," but already, offices, streets and garages are filling back up.

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'Defending freedom is gonna cost' at the gas pump: Today So Far - KUOW News and Information