Sunday, January 20, 2008

Why Is $5 Gas Good for America? Many Reasons

"High Gas Prices Truly Cut Dependence on Foreign Oil," Wired Magazine 2008

"Why $5 Gas is Good for America,"
Wired Magazine 2005, here's an excerpt:

Rising oil prices are more than just an irritant or even an ominous nick out of the GDP. For anyone with a fresh idea, expensive oil is as good as a subsidy - with no political strings attached. Indeed, every extra penny you pay at the pump is an incentive for some aspiring energy mogul to find another fuel.

For the better part of a century, cheap oil has fatally undercut all comers, not to mention smothered high-minded campaigns for conservation, increased efficiency, and energy independence. The changing outlook opens horizons - for conventional drilling, sure, but also for alternatives. Some new technologies merely produce more crude. But others tap energy supplies that have nothing to do with black pools under the Middle East.

What to do? Keep driving. In fact, drive more. The longer gas stays expensive, the higher the chance we'll see alternatives.

3 Comments:

At 1/20/2008 2:34 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow, Europe with their $5+/gallon gas must be way ahead of us in developing alternate fuels--or maybe they just surrendered and started driving 8 foot long cars.

 
At 1/20/2008 2:51 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The lower gas prices go the less need there will be for alternatives. You started with a conclusion and bent the world to it.

 
At 1/20/2008 9:24 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Europe and Japan are ahead of the US in developing smaller more efficient cars.

The CVT (continuously variable transmission) was used in Japan and Europe before it came to the US.

Aren't most hybrids cars in the US of Japanese design?

 

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