Article January 22, 2001 Issue

Energy shortages: there's a spiritual answer

How come shortages exist when God is giving us infinite good all the time?

By Peter Tonge

We were vacationing in the pretty Scottish village of Gairloch when the petrol pumps began to go dry. What had begun in France as a protest against high-priced and highly taxed fuel quickly spread to Britain and then, like so many falling dominoes, to other countries in Europe.

In the United Kingdom, angry truckers blocked refineries. Panic-buying at the pumps aggravated the situation, and soon vehicles in London and other major centers were running on fumes. In the rural region, where we were visiting, supplies fell at a less precipitous rate. But hotels reported that vacationers were canceling their reservations because fuel supplies were so low they couldn't take the trips they had planned.

While this protest caused only a temporary shortage, it underscored again the world's fear of, and apparent vulnerability to, energy disruptions. And of course consumers' concerns about energy, particularly in the colder regions of North America, extend to supplies of heating oil, bringing on fears that higher costs will make it unaffordable.