This darkly humorous Exxon sign is making the email rounds:
Guess they’ve never been to Europe.
One wonders how Americans will respond when peak oil really kicks in, and gasoline prices are 50% higher — and then 100% higher — than now.
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“One wonders how Americans will respond when peak oil really kicks in, and gasoline prices are 50% higher — and then 100% higher — than now.”
At $8 U.S., I’d say panic across the known world as economies grind to a halt.
Stock up and fill up your jerry cans along with a good supply of Sta-Bil.
At $5 a gallon its going to change the lives of many Americans- beyond that, Americans may begin to drive like Europeans.
Perhaps some forward thinking gas station owner might try to post the actual cost of a gallon of gas after listening to a few minutes of this, (beginning at time stamp 1:55:39)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho21uGBxeAE&feature=player_embedded
Another highly recommended brief video which should be required viewing for every middle and high school student: Annie Leonard and The Story of Citizens United v. FEC (2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=k5kHACjrdEY
Maybe at gasoline prices at §8 – which is considered normal in some countries in Europe – Americans will start saving some energy and realize that you can use smaller cars, public transportation, bicycles or even walk shorter distances. European economies have not come to a grinding halt due to higher prices, why should the American?
The pump price here in Norway has passed the equivalent of 9 US dollars/US gallon. It passed $8/USGallon last year. Life goes on. Most people drive fuel-efficient cars in a fuel-efficient way.
FS… You’re exactly right. The irony is that, truth be told, gas already costs $8/gal in the US. It’s just hidden in our tax structure so you don’t feel it at the pump and blame the oil company. You feel it in your paycheck and you blame the government. Exactly what the oil companies want you to do.
ToddInNorway reminds us that places like Norway pay $9/gallon and are doing fine.
Actually they are doing better than “fine”. According to US EIA data, Norway’s economy generates nearly $8,000 per tonne of CO2. The USA manages only $2,400.
Which economy do you want to have when the inevitable ratcheting down of CO2 kick in?
Nothing more self-defeating these days than trying to keep fossil fuel prices low in your economy. The smart folks are slapping a fee on it and using the proceeds to gracefully transition their economies while there is still time.
Winners drive Electric …
Problem with comparing the U.S. to other countries, like those in Europe, is that most U.S. cities were built around the car. You simply can’t get anywhere you need to go w/o a vehicle. Nothing is close enough to walk to or even bike to, unless you live in a small town.
We’re screwed.
The US public have been brainwashed for decades to see themselves as ‘exceptional’. Not human beings like the rest of us, but special, God-chosen creatures with a Manifest Destiny to rule the world. Even the most down-trodden, the Wal-Mart drones or the middle-income toilers whose wages after stagnating for forty years, are now under furious attack from the ultra-Right, believe this malarkey, which suits the owners of society nicely. Instead of looking at the maldistribution of wealth, political power and privilege, the suckers are, instead, organised into Tea Parties and set against other working people, environmentalists, unionists, ‘socialists’ etc, and have their thinking done for them by the Becks of this world, while Rupert beams with quiet satisfaction. The response to high petrol prices will never be economising, traveling in public transport, buying smaller, more efficient cars etc. That would be to betray the ‘American Way of Life’ which, as Bush told us, ‘is non-negotiable’. Better to just invade the oil-rich countries (Iraq) subvert others (Iran, Libya, Venezuela) and keep compliant dictators in power in the rest (Saudi Arabia, the Gulf)and take the oil that is yours, by Divine Dispensation. Needless to say, this will just make the problem worse, but when your options are restricted by lack of imagination and a ruthlessly straitened worldview, it is almost inevitable that you will play to your strong suit, military violence and intimidation. Grim times, growing grimmer by the hour, indeed.
In the US we prefer crisis and corruption. When these kick in, we give even more money to war contractors and their mining beneficiaries (such as Halliburton of hydralic fracturing and middle-east fame). We are a government “for sale or rent.” The only principle we care about is principal investment for elites. The only capitol concern is capital gain in the lobbies of congress.
Since we are pathetic, we deserve our fate come peak oil and planet.
Peak Oil has already kicked in. World crude production peaked in 2005, and has never exceeded that amount since.
#9 Ominous Clouds Overhead is right that American cities were built for the car, but so were many cities in Europe where American ideas of city planning were readily copied in the 1950′s and 60′s. However, when the first oil crisis showed that this path may not have been the best, changes were made which very gradually led to more livable cities. Most bikepaths in Europe have been built in the last 20 years.
So, don’t pity yourself but fight for walkways, bikepaths and better public transportation. Change will not come quickly but it is certainly possible.
While Europe may be doing well now with gas at $8/gal it’s worth noting that 5 of the 8 is a tax. The government takes in a lot of revenue from that tax and uses it for all sorts of things. Like health care:)
If gas hits 8 bucks a gallon in the US it’s because it costs 7 bucks a gallon for the next barrel of oil to be lifted. The current low US gas tax will no longer maintain the roads and bridges, let alone contribute to something as useful as health care.
I’ve got to agree with the Lore in the first post; the US economy will grind to a halt with 8-9 gas and the rest of the world won’t do much better.
Cities are ever evolving mechanisms that support societies. When gas prices bust open the ceiling, they’ll shine light on the changes that will need to be made. As fewer people drive, or drive less, they’ll adapt their habits and also modify their nearby environments for convenience. It’s what we have done and will do.
Wish us luck in our transition to sanity.:-)
“Guess they’ve never been in Europe.” Bravo! And let’s keep it that way, shall we?
In Europe we have not only bikepaths and energy efficient cars. We have also cities where you don’t need a car and high speed trains between them… The trains between NY and Washington or Boston are a joke in comparison. And with our gas tax dollar we build also roads, without potholes… America is falling apart and the US people can not see it because so few have been abroad and seen what is happening in the real world.
Yeah the liquid evil is a tad pricey over here (UK) at the moment having just gone up again!
The Ave./Min./Max are here http://www.petrolprices.com/ with the Ave. being 130.43p per litre so call it £1.30
1 US Gallon = 3.78541 Litres
3.78541 * £1.30 = £4.92 per US Gal = $8.03 per US Gallon
So the UK is already over $8 a gallon and the economy has not ground to a halt… yet
A Crime Scene
Australia’s Climate Budget 2010/2011
http://yfrog.com/gyj5egsj
The problem isn’t commuting or driving about. It’s the fact that in a geographically large country, the US has concentrated production of food and material goods and created long-distance distribution logistics operations. All in the interest of profit. When gas prices go too high, large parts of the country will have a hard time getting food. Inflation takes off. Local farmers can’t grow edible food because Monsanto’s GMA corn is not edible, and some can only be used to make ethanol.
Why is it we fail again and again to see the risk and vulnerability of our system?
Like some of the previous posters I also live in Europe. Here in the Czech Republic gas is about U.S. $8.00. The big difference is you just don’t see the big engines (even in the trucks) that seem to be so necessary (not) in the U.S.
Interesting story about a morning commentator on CNBC asking his UK counterpart about the cost of petrol. The guy in the UK stated the high price and then mentioned he drove a VW Golf, not an SUV like the American commentator. The American then laughed and said “oh no, I don’t drive a gas guzzler, it gets 20 miles to the gallon!” In other words less than half what the Golf gets. The U.S. needs to downsize, soon, and understand that 20 mpg is not good mileage. Driving by yourself to work does not require 350 horsepower and 6000 lbs of steel.
And also, I don’t own a car anymore. No payments, no insurance, no maintenance, no parking fees, no problem. For the small sum of $50.00 a month I can ride the buses, trams and trains all I want. Simply going to work and to the store means walking most days…I couldn’t do that in Phoenix, AZ. Going anywhere else means buying a train ticket, and that usually costs less than the price of the gas.
Spot on Dug,
if you come over to the UK / Europe you will find that the new breed of superminis are becoming very popular and for good reason considering the price of fuel e.g. look at the MPG and engine sizes of the Alfa Romeo Mito’s below…
“The 1.3 JTD 95bhp unit MiTo generates 200Nm of pulling power from 2,000rpm, with a 0-60mph time of 11.8 seconds and a top speed of 110mph. Economy is 62.8mpg and the CO2 figure is 119g/km, therefore benifitting from £35 road fund licence.”
“The 1.6 JTD 120bhp unit Alfa Romeo MiTo generates a whopping 320Nm of torque, or pulling power, with a 0-60mph time of 9.9 seconds and a 123mph top speed. Economy is 58.9mpg and the CO2 figure is 126g/km.”
Thats 58.9 – 62.8 MPG!!!
First Europe countries are smaller than US so no need to drive so much. Buses, trains are very convenient. So you cannot compare the need of the US to the one of Europe.
With so much in all the States, why don’t you drill !!!
Gilles from France
I have a Green Party friend who rides his bicycle with a sign on the back reading “Don’t be Fuelish.” It seems to be the start of many conversations, all of which he uses to good ends.
Americans will evolve. Americans will grow stronger legs to walk and ride bicycles, stronger hands for the handle bars, and larger brains so they can figure out how to live without doing everything wall street and the koch brothers tell them to do.
It is easy for me to say this, I live in new york and chose this lifestyle a few decades ago, it’s time for the rest of america to get with the program
Gli #17: “With so much in all the States, why don’t you drill !!!”
There is no way that the U.S. can drill its way out of the problem. We have 2% of the worlds known reserves while we use nearly 20% of the world’s available liquid fossil fuel energy.
Reserves in oil shale, offshore and Alaskan oil are not nearly enough in amounts needed to keep us supplied. Not to mention that these sources are the most expensive oil we’ve ever produced. At best we can only hope, for a brief time, to extract enough oil locally to supplant the amount lost through depletion.
We import nearly 72% of our oil and we face outlooks like Mexico in 2014, our #2 source, which will by then become a net importer of oil rather then exporter. Pulling another rabbit out of our hats as the noose tightens gets more difficult to do with each passing year.
Being a Brit and having lived in The Carolinas (USA), Baltimore (USA), Madrid (Spain) and now living in Madison Wisconsin, I can tell you that there is no ideal, universal solution to this issue from an individual perspective.
It is possible for nyc-tornado-ten (above) to get around on a bicycle in New York, but this would be impossible for my in-laws who live in rural North Dakota, where at least one 4 wheel-drive gas-guzzler is an absolute imperative.
In Madrid (and, to a large extent, Madison WI), it is possible to abandon the car and use public transport because it is subsidized (i.e., cheap). In Madrid, where gas is around $7 a gallon, there are still those who drive HumV’s, but they are just the rich few. The vast majority of the population uses buses, trains and the spotlessly clean, amazingly cheap and efficiently run Metro system. A high-speed, high comfort train journey from Madrid to Barcelona takes just 2 hours (5 hours by car) and costs about $60. Madrid has a public transportation system that puts London’s to shame (which is dirty, crowded and expensive … oh, and privatized!). London is trying to move towards being environmentally aware, but at the moment it penalizes the public (fuel levies, exorbitant parking charges etc.) while not providing a fair, or cost-effective, alternative.
The ONLY way to wean even a significant proportion of the population of the USA off gas, in my opinion, would be to have Government, at a State and Federal level, subsidize similar systems, and subsidize them heavily.
Unfortunately, for probably ideological reasons, Wisconsin has just spat $800 million back at DC for a high speed rail that could have provided a hub for the development of a wider transit system (and created jobs – what a weird idea). We may lose millions more in Federal funds because Federal support of the transit system is dependent upon workers having collective bargaining rights (D’oh!). In the budget, an allocation of several million is being made to grow the roads and, thereby, increase dependence on, or at least the convenience of, cars.
We all know who did that.
Until this sort of rabid support of the fossil fuel industry at the expense of more attractive alternatives is MADE to stop by some brave (dare I say it) ‘progressives’, and such ‘socialist’ ideas are pushed, the USA will continue to pollute its way into oblivion. Don’t forget to send your children a ‘wish you were here’ postcard!
Here in Seattle, a supposedly green,liberal place we have the road building industries doing everything they can to ensure their profits.The original Monorail was intended as the first leg of a citywide system and SHOULD have been built by the 1970′s.Instead it was delayed until the late ’90′s when it was voted in.The city decided the clear language of the law only demanded further study.TWO MORE votes overwhelmingly demanded the system be built and they started but then our local corporatist rag The BIAW Times-I mean Seattle Times-lied by omission about the true costs of it all (It was so convenient of them not to mention the true costs of the two grand sports stadiums they helped ram down our throats that lie idle over 6 months of the year)
They’re doing their best to destroy the area’s lite rail projects and they’re trashing the new mayor every chance they get because he doesn’t support the Viaduct tunnel boondoggle along the Waterfront-you know the area most vulnerable to sea level rise by the century’s end where the entrance to the tunnel stands a good chance to flood.
Not to mentions bus service here sucks and is going downhill rapidly-they recently raised buspass prices 67% in less than 2 years.They take out bus stops whenever a business owners whines about it and insult our intelligences about all this improving service.Yeah,so much is being done to get car drivers out of their cars!! I’m so hopeful of the future.
I apologise that this is a little off topic, but I think this is a stroke of genius. Following on from Bill O’Reilly’s (FOX News) ludicrous claims that Union Protests in Madison are getting violent and using a video that included palm trees in the background as evidence….errr NOT Wisconsin!!
Now, there ARE palm trees in WI http://yfrog.com/h08midoj
Maybe humor is the only way to fight this nonsense? Nothing else seems to be working.
As some have noted, the problem goes far beyond driving around. Petroleum is a feedstock in something like 95% of our industrial processes. So we’re looking at price inflation of just about everything, followed by demand destruction, followed by deflation and a second “Great Recession.” As if we ever got out of the first!