A Full Tank, An American Birthright

The day after President Bush pleaded with Americans to "be prudent in their use of energy," Nestor Zabala pulled into a Baltimore gas station and ignored the commander in chief, topping off the tank of his Honda Accord.

His excuse? A leisurely Labor Day weekend drive to New York. "I've got tickets to Shakespeare in the Park," said the 34-year-old architect, as he pumped $5, then $10, then $15 into his car on Friday.

As government leaders and energy companies try to prevent a disruption in the nation's fuel supply from spiraling into a consumer crisis, they are discovering one immovable stumbling block: American culture.

In a country where rising incomes have spawned five-car families and sprawl has given rise to two-hour daily commutes, a full tank of regular unleaded gasoline is regarded as a birthright, and the automobile is considered an essential tool in the mobile economy.

In a pinch, consumers might skip a dinner out. But few will ever consider, let alone actually pass on, a tank of gas.

"We equate cheap gasoline with freedom," said Kevin Forbes, chairman of the business and economics department at Catholic University in Washington. "It's almost as if we as Americans believe we have a constitutional right to cheap energy."

Gas is life in the United States -- an unseen and for the most part little-fretted-over chain of carbons that lubricates the trip to the grocery store, the ride to school, the weekend getaway. It powers a dizzying array of toys and gadgets -- not only cars, but sleek cigarette boats and four-wheel drives and all-terrain vehicles and custom Harley choppers and Ski-Doos and Sea-Doos. We're not quite sure how, but like the sewer system or the interstate or the Internet, it's somehow always there.

Until it isn't. Like it wasn't last week at gas stations across the country, setting off a modest panic.

So despite strong arguments for restraint in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Bush's seemingly reasonable request has fallen on deaf ears and full tanks. In some cases, it may even have encouraged the kind of gratuitous consumption the president had hoped to avoid, this being the home not only of car-ism but also of libertarianism.

Across the country, drivers far from Katrina's wrath didn't just fill up at the pump, they hoarded gas -- topping off tanks in Texas, filling up gallon cans in Maryland, even storing extra fuel in empty cooking-oil containers in North Carolina.

The trouble, for Bush and the rest of the country, is that rising gas prices and fears of a shortage have collided with deeply held convictions that consumers deserve fuel.

It is by no means a new notion. For a historical reference, see Carter, Jimmy, 1977.