Excellent article in the Times about the current oil crisis, which has sent prices spiraling to over $116 a barrel. It is amazing to see the immediate correlation between world crude prices and the prices at the pump; are these station owners that cued into the global supply chain, or is there some aggressiveness with price rises and reluctance with price decreases occurring at the local level? I think there is a simple answer for this, an answer that can be tagged to the local owners, the middlemen, and the Majors: greed. For whatever it is, I am feeling quite fortunate that I do not own a car; for the first time, I have absolutely no desire to drive and have that kind of "tax" burden in my daily life. I see the Humvees and Suburbans drive past and wince and cringe for their unfortunate owners, who could not have forseen $4 a gallon gas when they took that plunge. Thankfully, I am in one of the few places in America with a progressive public transportation system (NYC) that allows for an alternative. The U.S. is so far behind even the poorest of developing countries in terms of public transport, this fact, in reality, is shocking. I have traveled extensively in India, a country where 2/3 of the population lives on less that $1 a day, and yet their bus and rail network is far superior to ours. the "richest country in the world." We are a car nation; and now we are paying for this shortsightedness and "me me me me" mentality, of both consumers and auto makers and policy makers. Some interesting and alarming foresight from the article, written by Jad Mouawad.
Today’s tensions are only likely to get worse in coming years. Consider a few numbers: The planet’s population is expected to grow by 50 percent to nine billion by sometime in the middle of the century. The number of cars and trucks is projected to double in 30 years— to more than two billion — as developing nations rapidly modernize. And twice as many passenger jetliners, more than 36,000, will in all likelihood be crisscrossing the skies in 20 years. William Chandler, an energy expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, estimates that if the Chinese were using energy like Americans, global energy use would double overnight and five more Saudi Arabias would be needed just to meet oil demand. India isn’t far behind. By 2030, the two counties will import as much oil as the United States and Japan do today.