"Lisa Dusseault" <lisa@xythos.com> writes:
> To address the phrase "when it costs $50 to get groceries": it won't.
> (adjusted for inflation, that is).
> - if it cost $50 to go a generous five miles (who in suburbia lives >5
> miles from a grocery store?)
> - that implies that gas costs $300/gallon (assuming 30 mi/gallon)
That's a good point, cars will get lighter and more efficient and we
might see an average efficiency like this.
> - that implies oil cost of $3000/barrel (at current taxation and profit
> rates)
I did pull that $50 out of my butt. But I didn't say "spend $50 on
gas to drive to the grocery store", I said "$50 to get groceries". Or
at least I meant that, no matter what I said :)
Groceries are grown with oil these days. Tractors, trucks,
refrigeration, etc.. Jack the price up as energy prices go up.
Cars are built with loads of electricity. Jack that price up as more
energy comes from the grid because the cheap oil isn't available.
Packaging is built out of oil. Heck, roads are built out of oil, and
oil is burned to build them.
I haven't mentioned that the coal will get expensive, because I don't
know when coal will start getting scarce. But can we burn more coal
before we see effects like in China, anyway (hidden costs like
agricultural and health damage)?
-- Karl Anderson kra@monkey.org http://www.monkey.org/~kra/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Apr 27 2001 - 23:14:25 PDT