How America is Dealing with the Energy Crisis

"I should be picking you up now", said the driver of the airport shuttle as he pulled up in front of the Hilton hotel. It was 1:35 pm on a gray afternoon in Houston, TX and I was glad he had picked me up earlier than I was scheduled. My flight was only leaving at 4 pm but I just did not want to take chances. After all, hurricane 'Ike' had just visited Houston and its aftermath was writ large across its landscape. "Just one more stop after this at the Hyatt and we should be on our way to the airport", said the driver gleefully. Was I happy? I was going back home after being out for 3 days and was looking forward to sleeping in my own bed that night.

Having said that, the driver of the airport shuttle left me to my own devices (read my blackberry) and went looking for the fare he was scheduled to pick up at this spot. The email junkie that I am, I immediately immersed myself into the blackberry and didn't step out for the next 6 or 7 minutes. When I did come out of my trance, I realized there was a humming noise I was hearing. No prizes for guessing what the hum was, it was obviously the shuttle's engine that was left running by the driver. I looked at the watch on the dashboard of the van and it showed 1:42 (I got my math right, didn't I?).

"So this is how America is dealing with its energy crisis, is it?" I wondered loudly. I looked out of the window towards the hotel lobby and there was no sign of the driver. So I decided to really track how long this nonsense would go on. I started looking at the clock on the dashboard and towards the hotel lobby alternately. The clock struck 1:47 and the driver walked out accompanying two passengers. He was in more glee as he was talking to one of them and soon I realized that the reason for his increased glee was that the passenger talked the same language as he did (and which I didn’t). As this passenger settled in to the seat right next to the driver's, they both let out guffaws to what must have been a joke.

To me, this was certainly not funny. A 14-seater passenger van (and we all know the miles per gallon it delivers anyway) had been left engines running for 12 full minutes and here were this driver laughing to glory. An additional minute had passed by the time he finally pulled out of the Hilton parking lot at 1:48 PM.

Next stop, the Hyatt. This time the gleeful driver (he had not stopped smiling yet) found his fare in 2 minutes, so I did not have much to complain. Well, hell and destiny played its part. There was this huge Chevrolet Suburban truck that was parked right ahead of our van, engine running and we had no room to pull out of the area (Have you ever seen Double Trouble?). It was another 2 or 3 minutes before he finally pulled out of the lot, maneuvering the van between two other vehicles and was on the road again, headed to the airport. The smile never left the driver's face all along the ride and he finally got us to the airport at 2:45 PM, after having missed an exit on the highway and having made several circles before he got back on track. He still managed the smile when he handed me my luggage.

For the last one year, I have been in America, witnessing fuel prices go through the roof and how the presidential candidates have gone after each others' throats on whether offshore drilling is better or developing renewable sources of energy is better. It has certainly helped to have a close cousin who works in a large international organization for its renewable energy division. He helps me put things in perspective sometimes. However, even as I was walking the long pathways of the Intercontinental Airport in Houston, trying to identify my gate, one thing was clear to me. Whoever becomes the President of America does not have to go far to find solutions for the energy crisis. All they need to do is walk into hotel driveways and turn off the engines of the several shuttles that are waiting for their fares. And run meaningful ad campaigns telling people to switch off their automobiles when not needed.

Don't go away yet, for this is not over. My flight boarded sharp at 4 PM. Every passenger was comfortably seated, the doors were sealed and the aircraft pulled back. "Ah! Home, at last", I thought. Then the rain came pouring down. "Ladies and Gentleman”, the voice of the flight’s captain came crackling through the public address system, “welcome aboard this flight with direct service to Philadelphia. As you can see on your right, the weather is not what we would have liked it to be and we have a long line of flights waiting to take off. I am told that we are 40th in the line and it may take us about half an hour to take off. However, as there are some arriving aircraft that we need to make way for, we are going to pull out of here and move to another area, where we will wait till the air traffic control clears us for take-off. We apologize for this inconvenience but assure you that we will be in the air as soon as we can. We appreciate your business and thank you for your patience".

I was surprised, because I was actually smiling. I had decided to take it in my stride. Luckily, I had a friendly, conversational neighbor and time passed by pretty fast. At some point, we ran out of more things to discuss and then I pulled out my laptop from my bag and started writing this piece. I am not wearing my watch today so I just pulled out my blackberry and turned it on to see what the time is. It is 8 PM local time and we have been sitting on the tarmac for 4 hours. The engines of this grand Boeing 737 have been running all this time...

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