Missed Opportunity

NBC covered something on Nightly News tonight that Peak Oil folks have been discussing for a while -- our infrastructure is crumbling.  Actually, a friend of mine (I have no idea if she is part of the Peak Oil crowd or not) was the first to fill me in years ago.

The issue goes beyond roads and bridges.  It is also water & sewer, electrical grid, schools, the list goes on.

But for driving, let's make this clear, bumpy roads can lead to car damage (it certainly leads to wear and tear) -- it makes owning and operating a car more expensive.

How could we have avoided this?  What was our missed opportunity?  We could have taxed ourselves.  By raising the gas tax years ago we would have been putting that money into our own coffers instead of into the coffers of countries that don't really care for us.  At $2/gallon, adding say a $0.20/gallon tax, people would have had a fit and politicians heads would have rolled.  But here we are clearly marching towards $5/gallon gas, and the roads are still crowded. 

Taxing ourselves would have gotten us away from the disaster of SUVs more quickly as well (although at something closer to a $2/gallon gas tax than a $0.20/gallon gas tax).  The big three auto makers would never admit it, but a gradual and planned increase in the price of gas via a gas tax would have allowed them to transition away from the SUV market in a more orderly format, which would have been great for their economy, as well as ours.  It takes a lot of time to retool a plant -- and right now we really need plants that can turn out more busses (and rail cars).

-- Andy

P.S. A road near my house was recently repaved, and they made it worse than it was before.  So increased cost does not (necessarily) equate to better quality.

P.P.S. H St (along with a number of other DC streets) is notorious for being ripped up and fixed, only to be ripped up again.  This is done as the utility companies have no sense of coordination with each other.  It is a major detriment to all involved.  If the cot of repaving is increasingly expensive, would this push them to be better at coordinating.

Oilympics

There are increasing signs that China is hoarding oil/petrol in preparation for the Olympics. They do not want anything to spoil their moment in the sun, and long lines at the gas station are one cloud they can avoid.

I suspect that the completion of the Olympics, as well as the end of the Summer driving season will equate to falling oil and gas prices.

What you don't want to hear from me is that falling prices might only mean falling back to what the prices currently stand. The reduction of hording by China and the end of Summer driving will cut demand, but will not help increase supply. Cantarell and North Sea will continue to decline and I remain skeptical that Saudi Arabia can really do much of anything

Fast Car

The other day I heard a great song from my past: Fast Car by Tracy Chapman (video).  It was released in 1988, but came back in popularity again while I was in college.

It is a depressing song, looking at how bad situations can perpetuate; the vicious cycle of poverty.

Also depressing is how much the narrator of the song sees the car as the solution.  The car can take her away from her drunken father and her run down life and into some fantasy life just across the border.  The car can provide entertainment for cruising, even while living in the shelter.  The car can take away the good-for-nothing spouse.  And maybe worse (or maybe I am reading too much into it), the car relates to the feeling of self-actualization:

I had a feeling that I belonged
I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

How will the future generations see this song?  I suspect it will be seen as a sign of the times it was written in.  The deception of fixing problems by running away is just as great as the deception that the car can cure the ills.  Maybe the concept that the poor could own and operate a car will even seem absurd, just as today the it seems absurd that at one time it was doctors that had cars so that they could drive to patients (because their patients didn't have  cars to drive and see them).

Leave tonight or live and die this way

Seems fairly bleak if the option to leave is removed from the equation.

-- Andy