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US Gasoline Prices Spur Telework
coondoggie writes "The price of gasoline may finally be changing the way many people commute and communicate. Anecdotal evidence says teleworkers are growing rapidly as a direct result of the cost of driving. The article links a survey indicating that in Q1 2007 the 19 largest US cable and telephone providers (representing about 94% of the market) acquired over 2.9 million net additional high-speed Internet subscribers, to a total of about 56.2 million. That can be attributed in part to more employees taking advantage of telework programs, experts say. Just this week the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust task force opened the first of a series of hearings on the oil industry. Its chairman noted that gasoline prices have soared well above $3 a gallon and asked, 'How did we get into this mess?'"
We are probably past the peak of world oil production. The price will likely go 5x higher than it is now. We are a long ways from developing any alternatives. Pretty much everyone looks over their shoulder and figures it is going to be the next guy who goes on an oil diet.
Ideas like ethanol will probably not pan out well. You need to be able to brew beer for $2.50 a keg in order for ethanol to compete with gasoline at $1.25 per liter. There are possibilities mind you. Ethanol from cellulose is one and oil from alga is another... but these are technologies which need to be developed.
The short of it is that we are facing a crisis the porportions of which the world has not seen in decades. It is not going to be pretty and it is not going to be fun.