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152 comments on CNN: Reporting on the Growing Peak Oil Meme

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SocraticGadfly on March 16, 2006 - 1:52pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Totally agreed. We need people talking about Peak Oil in the mix of everyday events.

I did just that in my most recent newspaper column on the subject last week, of which I'll quote a couple of grafs:

You pull up to the gas pump at RaceTrac.

The price has jumped again this week.

It's now $3.39 a gallon, up a dime.

In your SUV, the commute to work is now costing almost $10 a day.
Your son's birthday is coming up, and you're trying to figure out how you're going to get him much this year.

Wal-Mart has raised most of its prices 10 percent or more in the last year. Its vaunted just-in-time distribution system has been taking an even more serious petroleum kick in the seat, with diesel prices now over $4 a gallon.

You're wondering and worried about your future, and your family's as well.

You were thinking about moving further out into exurban Dallas, but you just can't see doing that now. You've been talking to a friend who bought a house in Ellis County less than two years ago and is now worried about losing the mortgage.
Wasn't it just yesterday that oil prices were cheap at $60 a barrel? How did we get to $100 a barrel?

Note that I did NOT mention a hurricane or any other disaster, but rather just put this as part of a progression of "normal" price increases.

(I am the edtor of a suburban Dallas weekly paper and assistant managing editor of our five-newspaper group; total circ. about 17K.)

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oilaholic on March 17, 2006 - 12:38am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
This is the sort of scenario-building the public needs to see more of, but I suspect that at $100 oil, gas would be more like $4.00, don't you think?
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SocraticGadfly on March 17, 2006 - 2:16am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Yes, you're right. I originally had $90 a barrel for the oil price, then edited that to $100 for the extra shock value, and did not edit gas prices accordingly.

Otherwise, thanks for the kind words. Now, if only I could get hired by a bigger paper!

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AlanfromBigEasy on March 18, 2006 - 12:50am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Another aspect might be standing room only on DART, new vehicles on order (they used a recent cost underrun on a few more AFAIK), real estate tanking in exurbia but "hot as a pistol" for residential within walking distance of DART stations as almost all new office buildings are built within four blocks of a DART station. Even 1/2 mile away residential is going at a premium.  Massive bike parking racks are going up at DART stations, displacing Park & Ride cars, and there is talk of taking one car lane (in one direction) and turning it into two bike lanes on roads leading to stations.  (A four lane street becomes a 2=1 car lanes and 2 bike lanes).

Texas Legislature is debating stopping construction of new highways and devoting soem of that money to electric trolley buses and urban rail (streetcars, light rail, commuter rail).

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SocraticGadfly on March 18, 2006 - 2:32am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Right on all of this. The new UNT-Dallas is south Dallas is "hot" in part because it will eventually have a DART rail terminal. (My paper is in Lancaster, just south of there.)
Of course, a number of suburbs haven't bought into DART and are maxed out on sales taxes.

And, with folks at Volvo now unveiling hybrid buses, mass transit is getting a newer (and cleaner) lease on life.

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152 comments on CNN: Reporting on the Growing Peak Oil Meme

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