Opinions vary regarding whether the only way for the government to encourage energy conservation is to increase the price of gasoline and electricity. I agree with the statement for the following two reasons. First, higher fuel price can discourage people from exceedingly using energy. Additionally, alternative energy cannot be used by all customers.
First of all, increasing the price of gasoline and electricity is a good way to decrease energy consumption. In these days, energy source that people are using are depleting quickly. The problem with this is that exhausting of energy source will pose a serious risk to our survival in the future. Thus, I maintain that the government needs to take of measure of increasing energy price, which will be a good method to conserve energy source. Take our country case as an example. A decade ago, our government advertised citizen to save energy during the hot summer season. Despite the advertisement, people did not stop air conditioner and reduce the consumption of energy. Recently, our government announced a strict policy of energy use. According to this policy, people are charge double for their use of energy during summer season. As a result, energy consumption surprisingly decreased since citizens would not like to burden higher energy price.
In addition, alternative energy cannot supply enough volume to the majority of our society. Some people say that if technology of alternative energy develops, the government supplies a sufficient energy people need without increasing the price. However, alternative energy is neither fully developed nor fully applied. I claim that the government should impose higher energy price on users. According to a study conducted by Korean National Research Center, 71 percent of surveyed energy specialists answered that there are many impediments that prevent alternative energies from improving their efficiency. Based on the study, alternative energy will be able to play a crucial role in reducing the increasing energy consumption for the time being, because the alternative energy cannot be utilized enough to replace fossil energy.
In conclusion, we cannot expect to decrease energy consumption without higher its price since increasing the price of gasoline and electricity is a good way to discourage people’s excessive use of energy, and alternative energy is not likely to develop as much as all people use. |