Thursday, May 22, 2008

Helping the Working Man

Did you see that story on the front page of the Wall Street Journal's "Personal Journal" section a couple of days ago, about how companies are taking emergency measures to help their employees deal with high fuel costs?

  • One company gave everyone a $50 bonus in their paychecks to offset some of the cost.
  • Some companies are providing van pooling or other company-sponsored transportation.
  • Some are increasing reimbursable mileage rates or providing cost-of-living raises.
  • One company is subsidizing employees' cost of fuel for traveling to work.
  • Another is subsidizing their cost for public transportation.
  • Another negotiated a discounted membership fee for its employees at a warehouse club that sells gasoline.
  • Microsoft (who else would have the resources?) leased two large office complexes that are closer to home for lots of their employees.
  • And -- my personal favorite -- one company pays 100% of employees' fuel costs if they agree to wrap their cars in the company's branding (60% of the employees have taken them up on it).

Why am I telling you all this? Because high fuel prices are bad for people and bad for companies.

These companies aren't taking these measures because they've had a sudden onset of beneficence. They're doing it because they're afraid their employees will quit because it's too expensive to get there. One expert cited in the article also pointed out that financial problems are a source of stress that can make employees less productive. So companies are biting the bullet and doing what they can to help, out of their own self-interest.

Once again, I'm left scratching my head.

Once again, I have to ask, What the heck is it going to take before we recognize that the answer is right in front of us?! We can lower our fuel costs by creating our own domestic source of energy instead of importing it. By using the renewable resource represented by solid waste, we can generate our own energy, solve a nasty waste problem, and contribute to the arrest of global warming. I know it can work because it is working. In Carthage, Missouri, where a subsidiary of our company is producing and selling 20,000 gallons of renewable diesel every day to local companies who use it for boiler fuel. So what we are waiting for? For our energy policy-makers to wake up before the cost of fuel bankrupts our economy.

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