Last week, an emergency session of the New Mexico legislature passed a bill giving back about a hundred bucks to each tax payer to help offset high energy costs for the winter. We've been warned natural gas prices could be 50% higher than they were last year. So we're getting instant relief.

And that should cover the first half bill of the winter season. So, even though we all get individual checks, isn't this just a big check to our energy providers? Wouldn't it be a little more efficient to just pay PNM or whoever sells us the natural gas? Probably, but there are some people who don't have natural gas hookups, so everyone gets to spend that hundred bucks however they want.

Gas at the pump costs me about $100 a month now. Up from about $60 a few months ago. This means my new raise will almost all go to filling up my car with gas. I don't have the most fuel efficient car in the world, but it's much better than a lot of the cars I drive alongside every morning. Or I should say, the big ass trucks, SUVs and tanks I drive next to.

I haven't noticed people are driving less. I haven't noticed a lot more smaller cars on the road. But I know this must be on people's minds because there are news stories about how much fun it is to not drive the car everywhere. How clean buses are. How bikes and motorcycles and scooters are great ways to stick it to the oil man. Which is great. I can't really spend less money on my commute. I've got to go to work most days, so along that road I must drive. I don't want to spend money on a new car, I just got one about three years ago. But this new oil diet is intriguing to me.

I've got a friend who has been trying to walk and use the bus more. The difference, for the most part, is it takes him longer to get home from the bar. But it does save him gas money. And, since he does drink at times when he's out, he's also cut down on the dreaded drinking and driving. So mostly win win, I'd say.

I've got another friend who bikes about a hundred miles a week, as it is his principal means of transportation. He's been doing this for a while--years in fact--so it's not just the recent upsurge in oil prices that changed his ways. But, if he wants to, he could say "I told you so."

And I've always believed oil is a finite resource. That what took hundreds of millions of years to create is being depleted way way faster. I also know us humans are highly adaptable people when we have to be.

A few years back, everyone in the US looked down at their bellies and started to realize they were fat. And what about this great diet where you just have to eat a lot of meat and not eat the fries and bread and most vegetables? The miracle cure for fatty was the Atkins diet. The low-carb craze became the new fashion. Low carb stores popped up. Fast food companies helpfully suggested buying the sandwich without a bun (but then, it's not really a sandwich anymore, is it?).

For a few months, it really looked like Americans were going to lose all that weight with high protein, low carb diets. We knew it was peaking when hard liquor advertisements labeled Jack Daniels as a "low carb drink." Well, they weren't kidding, but it was a little patronizing, wasn't it?

So, even as I see a few people changing their oil consumption habits, I know a lot of people are kind of like me. I can't get full on behind this diet. I have to drive 40+ miles a day to get to and from work. I'm part of the problem, a single driver car gulping down the gas. I know the problem. I understand I'm not helping, but I'm not doing much to change, either.

I know a lot of people are like me.

I have to ask whether or not this outrage about gas and other energy prices will actually do anything to change us. I put the heater on at my house when it's cold. I drive my car when I have to go somewhere, because most places I go are over a mile from my house. Will this new gas diet last or is it just the newest fad?

I do hope hybrid cars become common place. I hope people winterize their houses better. I hope more people car pool or use the bus or ride bikes if they can. And I will try to walk when walking is appropriate.

When the whole low carb thing hit, I stopped eating so many fries and changed to a salad when I could. It's not huge, but it helps. Eating less and less fast food is very good. I didn't, however, try to eat a sandwich without a bun.

Hopefully in six months people will still be mad about gas prices. Hopefully the reality of our energy situation will cause a change in habits. Hell, I might even figure out a way to do something about my daily commute.

Matt Worley is realistic, even when he wants to be idealistic.