Every time I gas up my car, I want to party.

Every time I gas up my car, I want to party.

And, it just keeps getting better. Maybe we’ve hit bottom on gas prices with $57/barrel oil, but it hasn’t been this low since 2009 when we were deep in recession. Consumers are spending more on holiday shopping. That $20 a tank in savings will really help retailers end the year strong.

So, what’s not to like? Short term, this is pretty fine-for the U.S.  Europe is in a mess. The strong dollar is shoring up oil prices to non US currency countries, so they aren’t seeing the benefit from the oil price drop. Russia just announced they were going into a recession. They need high oil prices to sustain their economy. The Chinese government said they were lowering the projected growth rate from 7.7 to 7.2%. So while it looks good to us, it is not helping the rest of the world.

In the US, I see two problems long term.  Just like every other time we’ve ridden this roller coaster down in the last 40 years, we forget that carbon is finite, and we stop investing in alternate, cleaner fuels. We buy big gas guzzlers, and our desire to conserve gas tanks -so to speak.

Then, from a business to business perspective, how many people think the prices are going down from the logistics companies that ship your products? Right.  And, airlines will lower prices too. And, if you use petrochemicals, those prices will drop as the manufacturers rush to pass the savings on to value added processors.

When companies do strategic planning, changes in oil prices is one of those uncontrollable  outside forces they build plans around. Did you? Will you do it now? I think we all have to look at 2015 with new eyes. Remember, there is always opportunity in disruption. Let’s find even more to party about.