Disqus - Latest Comments for ctmichael

Re: Have You Ever Been To Texas, Mr. Reich?

ctmichael — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:53:51 -0000

Hi, Terry Ann,

Yes, my use of "voluntarily" and "forced" together was intentionally ironic. I believe most people and businesses "choose" to conserve only when finances give them little choice.

Regarding restrictions on refineries and reliance upon ethanol:

The American public (not just environmentalists) have overwhelmingly resisted the air and water pollution that refineries have caused on the gulf coast and in states such as New Jersey. Few Americans seem to want their air, rivers, and shorelines to become like Houston/Galveston. (Been there, swam there, breathed there, no thanks.)

Any public support for oil refineries, in the hope of lowering fuel prices, will be shortlived once refineries start to pop up in people's backyards and after the first few oil spills clobber the tourism industry.

As for ethanol, the powerful farm lobby seems to have fooled the public (until now) into believing that it is environmental and economical to expend more energy creating and transporting ethanol than is provided by ethanol when it reaches the automobile. I hope that high food prices force the public to confront the farm lobby, or at least encourage the farm lobby to put corn to more productive uses.

Re: Have You Ever Been To Texas, Mr. Reich?

ctmichael — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:35:51 -0000

Alternatively, does anyone believe that Texans will continue to choose to live far from workplaces and shopping when gasoline costs $9 per gallon?

Even if everyone could buy a hybrid (and they can't, due to manufacturers' difficulty in meeting demand for batteries), $6 to $9 gas is more than most families can sustainably afford.

Re: Have You Ever Been To Texas, Mr. Reich?

ctmichael — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:29:51 -0000

Terry Ann, I'm not asking millions of people to move. I'm saying that soaring fuel prices will force people to move, because nothing that is politically or economically responsible can be done to artificially reduce fuel prices.

The oil supply is running short fast, due to soaring global demand. Nothing can be done to quickly create sufficient oil out of thin air, even if we opened up offshore/Alaskan drilling. Soaring global demand can only be reduced through conservation, and conservation will only happen voluntarily when people are forced to conserve by high prices.

How do you propose to keep oil prices at a "reasonable" price?

Price controls will merely prompt oil companies and OPEC to turn off the supply.

Raising taxes or borrowing from the deficit to subsidize prices would only decrease conservation, encourage waste, and seriously weaken other federal programs.

Inventing oil out of thin air, or somehow denying oil companies the right to export new domestic oil sources to the highest bidder, are simply not feasible.

Imposing our will upon increasingly hostile Middle Eastern countries helped cause the current energy crisis. Iraq is bankrupting us, and Saudi Arabia and Egypt are highly unstable due to our ongoing interference in their industries and politics. The people in those countries will not tolerate a return to low oil prices that were enforced through colonialism.

Research into alternative energy is absolutely necessary, but so little research has been done that it will take many decades to replace oil -- and don't forget that the oil industry continues to lobby successfully against such research.

I'm all ears, if you have specific and feasible suggestions to make oil affordable so that suburban and rural Americans can continue to live a lifestyle of far-flung sprawl.

Re: Have You Ever Been To Texas, Mr. Reich?

ctmichael — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:59:16 -0000

Suburban and rural Texans are going to find life extremely difficult when gasoline hits $6 per gallon next year and $9 by 2011 if not sooner.

I believe Reich is aware that middle-class families in Texas (and much of suburban and rural America) will find themselves compelled by necessity to consider relocating to larger towns and cities, where doctors and grocers can be found in clusters -- and where mass-transit options become viable.

People naturally don't want to give up their single-family homes and far-flung neighborhoods, but like it or not, rising energy prices will force most Americans to redefine their dream home. At the same time, rising food prices are likely to put upward pressure on the cost of rural land. Perhaps this will act as a small deterrent to the development of additional car-dependent sprawl.

Sure, many people will refuse to move - but those that don't will struggle to keep both their families and their automobiles fed.

Perhaps we will develop off-shore and Alaskan oil fields, but that oil will be sold at high prices on the global market; it will slow oil-price inflation only slightly, and only temporarily. Twenty years from now, when those last-ditch oil resources are exhausted, where will we get our energy?