The Oil Drum | DrumBeat: July 22, 2006

227 comments on DrumBeat: July 22, 2006

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Nagorak on July 22, 2006 - 7:33pm

I agree that this is very bad and does not bode well for the future. It's not that we can't commute in more energy efficient ways or structure our societies in more energy efficient ways, it's that the transition may occur too quickly and result in a lot of serious problems. The housing bubble of the past 5 years happened at the worst possible time, really. Now we have people buying houses 1 or even 2 hours from their jobs and commuting the whole way, for some over 100 just one direction. The perfect setup for higher gas prices to just take people to the cleaners.

That said, a lot of people can cut back on gas usage a lot just by adopting better driving habits (if they realize that their habits are causing part of their excess fuel use) and getting smaller cars. There's no reason we can't have very fuel efficient small cars that are pretty cheap (don't even need any hybrid technology, look at the gas mileage the Geo/Cheverolet Metro got), so there's hope there too as people start to wake up.

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Mad Maxout on July 22, 2006 - 8:18pm

I already tend to do my shopping in a way to not divert from my commuting mission's "flight plan" too much. I do that from a pretty much an environmentalist's viewpoint. The gas isn't TOO expensive yet but I know that it will soon enough be.

It's certain that lots of drivers can modify their shopping trips to match their commuting missions. But the problem is that this method of conservation is limited. I have always kept this in mind, but most people so far don't. That's becuse I have always walked before driving and doing so as to minimise Calorie use in terms of general purpose instinct. I merely carried it over to car use.

Some time down the road, I will have to use a bus as a "booster" to get closer to work and use a bicycle as the second stage of the mission to work - if the job remains that is. I hate thinking about it, but that day is liable to come.

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geewiz on July 22, 2006 - 10:15pm

As heard from Perspective on the radio this morning driving in to work, T Boone Pickens is interviewed, and he mentions oil is about to go much higher, and gasoline will hit at least $4 within 6 weeks. OUCH!
He expects oil to hit $100 in the near future, by November as i recall.

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227 comments on DrumBeat: July 22, 2006

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