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Originally Posted by willravel
Hopefully this will motivate the free market to work a lot harder towards alternatives, as this will help grow that consumer base quickly.  |
Unfortunately the international demand for oil is not going to get smaller in the near future. During this time and as we have seen there is a re-distribution of real wealth occurring. When the international demand for oil levels off and starts to drop the US will have suffered and lost wealth to the degree from which we may never recover.
I think a better approach to this problem is to over the short run (10 to 15 years) implementation of policies that would increase the supply of oil while at the same time mandating efforts for alternatives - assuming agreement that there is a need for government to mandate any efforts in this regard.
The current approach dramatically shifts demand and supply out of balance driving up the price with the hope that higher prices will lead to a change in consumption behavior. However, while this is going on, our national wealth goes down, while the wealth of other nations goes up.
Another problem is that we treat our US based oil companies as the enemy, while other nations like China, Russia, Venezuela, and Middle Eastern countries treat their oil companies as a national treasure. It is sad that we won't recognize what is really in our best interest until it is too late.
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Originally Posted by filtherton
The next time I fill up, I'm going to think about how nice it will be to be able to ride my bicycle again as the weather turns warm.
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That is a nice sentiment, but it is not shared by the folks in India and China for example. If we dramatically reduce Co2 emissions that won't change global trends because of emerging international economies. Hence it is better if we maintain control of international markets rather than give that control to other nations. Don't you agree? At least here we can have the discussion.
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I'm also going to think how much job security I will have after I get out of school qualified for jobs in the alternative energy development sector.
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Do you think that will be a domestic company? It takes profits to invest in alternative sources of energy. Overly taxing and overly regulating our domestic oil companies is not going to be helpful in the long-run.
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I also might think about the guy filling up right next to me, the one who is all alone in his denali, who is paying $60 dollars to fill up- paying $60 to fill up and be inadvertently part of a collective effort to inflate the price of gas by driving a vehicle that unnecessarily increases demand, and how the free market has a nasty tendency to stab itself in the back.
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The guy in the Denali may spend excessive amounts of his earned income on gas for his vehicle, and others may spend excessive amounts of earned income to buy flavored lattes from over priced coffe shops. Why can't people choose their pleasures?
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And then I might also think about how my early 90's buick doesn't get good gas mileage at all, and how that's a pretty good reason to ride my bicycle, and how it's pretty sweet that the weather is getting warm again.
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I took my motorcycle out for a spin today, 50+ miles to the gallon.
Unfortunately the ride was for pure pleasure, so perhaps I was more wasteful than the guy in the Denali.
Perhaps we need a different kind of standard, one for productive miles per gallon. In some situations a Denali may be more efficient at 12 miles to the gallon than a hybrid at 60 miles to the gallon.