Maybe high oil prices are helping drive the recession as well as lowering consumptions. Which would at some point lead to lower oil prices, which would help SUV sales, and the cycle beginneth anew...

I just had my last home oil (B20) delivery today for awhile (we'll only burn it for hot water 'til the fall); the bill broke into the four digit range for the first time. Ouch.

I was planning on doing a bunch of airsealing and insulation projects this summer; I am now triply motivated. Fortunately, the conservation gains of these upgrades will be largely inelastic to any future drops in oil prices.

I'm also seriously considering a pellet stove, solar thermal for hot water, etc...

Right-wing think tanks are always complaining that taking meaningful action to address climate change will choke off economic growth.

AFAICT, economic growth is the only aspect of the situation that right-wing think tanks care about. They seem to think that growth can continue forever, without regard to realities such as finite resources.

Will increase regardless of economic conditions. The only question is whether the cost increase is used to finance renewable/alternative energy research or line the pockets of the oil men.

Only by bringing the cost of fuel in line with true supply and demand will any meaningful effort commence towards reducing emissions and rendering petroleum obsolete. At $6-7/gallon, people will carpool, demand more efficient transportation and adjust their lifestyle to reduce waste.

Waste is the big challenge for the U.S., and by extension the rest of the world. This country must transform itself from the most wasteful country on the planet to one of the most efficient, utilizing new technologies and an ethos that runs counter to today's "have it all" mentality.

The Bush Administration sees meaningful action on global warming (including efforts to reduce our national oil consumption) as a sort of economic zero sum game, which is to say, if we make driving more expensive we will lose money, because people and businesses will find it harder and harder to compete in the global marketplace. At least, that's what I think they think.

But, as car sales drop, bicycle sales rise. As people drive less, they walk more. Maybe they even ride a bicycle. They become healthier, get sick less. Their health costs shrink. Businesses are forced to find efficiencies, they didn't previously have to consider.

Yes. It's true that growth in some sectors is stifled, but the dollars hemorhaging from some businesses (e.g. I can't imagine UPS is loving high gas prices) are simply migrating to others. It's probably a good time to be selling solar power.

The bottom line is: We still need to eat. We still need to get to work. We still need to buy things. We might just have to find other ways to do those things. In that sense, the dollars are fungible, and it becomes hard to see the economic fall out of this oil "crisis" as anything other than a redistribution of wealth.

Perhaps then, the administration simply dislikes the way the redistribution is going. Maybe I just misunderstand.

But I don't think so.

But here it is happening now. People are riding transit more. That will in itself force more transit. As ridership increases, so do the routes, the freqency, and the convenience. The cry of "but the bus never comes" will disappear as the bus DOES come with more regularity, and there are more people on it.

People will demand safe pedestrian crossings when they NEED them to get to work, when being a pedestrian is part of life instead of part of the after-dinner dog walk. People will demand bike lanes when they need them, when biking becomes a mode of transit instead of a hobby.

Wow. This is cool. And I speak as an SUV owner (it's small, 8 years old, and paid for). My gas bills are through the roof but it's still less than a payment for a new car. I'm unfortunately stuck with this boat until its wheels fall off. Besides, you can't sell a used SUV now anyway.

I'm reminded of a dear friend who moved to the Netherlands. She had always been very heavy, and she lost 60 pounds in her first year living in the Netherlands. She didn't diet, she just lived like a Dutch person--walking, riding her bike, and only taking her car out on the weekends for drives in the country. Her car and her bike swapped places compared to life in the US. The bike was the practical necessity, the car was the weekend luxury she could have lived without.

Increased price of oil makes gas more expensive and decreases motor traffic, but doesn't it also encourage the use of coal, which is much worse for the environment?

The explosive economic growth in China & India over recent years - and the resultant growth of an affluent new middle class - means that a whole lot more motors are just beginning to idle in the East...and this frankly drowns out any driving reduction by us here in the US.

GM and Toyota both (rightfully) see China and (to a lesser extent) India as the next cash cow market, with literally millions of people now in a position to desire/afford cars as transport - as well as larger, more comfortable homes (which brings on the issue of more fossil fuel usage for heating, electricity, etc.)

Are we Americans - kings of consumption that we are - going to demand this burgeoning group of young Asian professionals to stick to the small, cramped homes and the bicycles of their parents' generation? Do we have a right to lecture the rest of the world in their energy consumption behavior, when we have feasted for so many decades without any thought to conservation? These are thorny but necessary questions to ask...

The drop in miles driven may be attributed to factors other than the high cost of gasoline. For several years car makers have pushed leasing options, which includes mileage limits. (My cousin had to rent a car to visit me, because his lease car had too many miles already). Give the automakers credit, you now need two cars to do what only used to take one.

While the line between corporate and government policy becomes blurred, we may want to ask, would 0% APR, the business tool which gave rise to the non-ownership society, the car driving public, would not have been possible without the Federal Reserve. 0% APR allowed GM to virtually lockout cash customers from the discount window, and rent you a car you could not drive.

What did the big three get in return for taking greater control of your driving freedoms? The automakers got a free ride in China, WTO, and all the wonderful policies that put poison products on American shelves, and American workers in the unemployment line. Now we can add one more thing, fewer miles driven, but don't blame gasoline, the limits on America's driving habits was already well under way when the price of fuel shot higher.