President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s statement to the members of the Majlis Energy Committee late on Sunday cast light on the black hole that has been swiftly devouring the national coffers.

His remarks about making efforts to prevent the waste of energy encouraged green activists and those concerned about citizens’ health and how the country’s wealth is being spent.

It was very important that the president lamented the waste of national wealth and insisted on controlling energy consumption by overhauling the current energy policy and developing mass transportation systems.

Unfortunately, the unreasonable and heavy subsidization of petrol prices has led to skyrocketing consumption and a negative cycle entailing the production of substandard cars, air pollution, health problems, heavy traffic, dilapidated cars plying the streets, lethargy by government officials in the development of public transport systems, and smuggling, at the expense of the national purse.

Regrettably, there is a view among the public that Iran sits on vast oil and gas reserves and thus there is no reason to increase energy prices. They even say that the government is selling oil, so why should Iranians themselves not use it. Some people don’t believe that the government is importing a third of the country’s petrol consumption, which stands above 70 million liters per day.

It is not only petrol consumption which is increasing rapidly. Our people have not learned how to use other resources such as natural gas, electricity, and water in a proper or economical way.

For instance, statistics show the rate of gas consumption is rising 15 percent every year. The rate of energy use is high in government buildings and offices where employees themselves do not have to pay for the expenses. Moreover, the subsidization of energy has led to the construction of buildings which do not conserve energy.

According to reports, the Oil Ministry has plans to construct buildings with double-pane windows to conserve energy, but nothing has been done yet to implement the plan.

At first, every proposal to sell petrol at market rates faced severe opposition by some lawmakers, who argued that price increases would lead to high inflation rates. However, the opposition has diminished as it is becoming more evident that freezing petrol prices has not prevented price hikes for other commodities and has only worsened the state of the economy.

We still have no answers for our children. We have been polluting the air and letting the county’s wealth go up in smoke.

Despite all the warnings from health specialists, economists, and certain officials, no major steps have been taken to remedy the situation. Now that the president is unequivocally lamenting wasteful energy consumption at the expense of national wealth and social justice -- which was his main slogan in the presidential campaign -- it is hoped that his encouraging statements will be translated into reality.