I remember when it went up. I was delivering newspapers at the time and it was hurting my bottom line. And GWB was right. We need to increase the supply, and reduce the demand. “Drill, baby, drill” makes for a great bumper sticker, but it’s not going to solve the problem by itself. We need to get as many people out of their cars as possible. The Austin, Texas bus system is great, if you have the time and inclination to use it. I can get anywhere in town in 2 hours. But there are limits and things that suck. So improvements need to be made in that. We need to develop vehicles that don’t use gas. So I’d like to see tax breaks and cash rewards going to companies that develop an affordable, practical electric or hybrid. It makes sense, right? If 1000 people people are paying $4 for a gallon, and you are able to get 300 of them to use buses, trains, or bikes, and you are able to get 200 of them to use electrics, the demand is so low that prices will have to come down, or more people will want to find alternate means of transport.
In the old days the marketplace, through the profit motive, would have found a solution to this problem.
Cash rewards? Like Solyndra? Throwing away tax dollars to crony capitalist buddies of whoever happens to be in charge is a bad idea.
You are only seeing half of the picture.
You could build the most massive public transport system you could imagine, and it might work fine for the drones that live in urban areas and commute back and forth to and from their jobs. While they last.
What about the 80 percent of people that don't want to live in urban utopia? What happens to the quality of life for the hundreds of millions that used to have a choice in where they live and where they work?
What happens when you can no longer purchase something on-line and pay to have it express shipped to you because it now must travel to you on “green approved” public transportation or rail? Will you call for an ambulance and be issued a bus ticket?
What is the plan for financing the roads and bridges in the new utopia once we force people to stop driving?
We do not have a shortage of natural resources, we have a conspiracy to maintain our dependence on foreign oil, while preventing exploration of domestic energy.
Any program that directed by government is another step toward slavery.
Most of us can’t take two hours to get to where we are going. Two hours each way make four hour round trip. That’s half a working day wasted. And trips to do anything would be impossible.