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Rush hour never ends.
(short for sadly no)
I haven’t filled my Chevy Volt’s gas tank in 3 months
Great car, I haven’t filled my Chevy Bolt with gas ever. 😂
I would agree with you for every country besides America. In America, especially in states like Indiana, you’re completely dependent on gas because there’s no other way to get to your job. So it does nothing to stop car usage and only finanically cripples people who are already barely keeping their face above water.
Gas use is pretty elastic, even in Indiana.
If gas is expensive, people tend to buy more fuel-efficient cars (or even electric cars). They drive slower and more fuel efficient. They consider whether a trip is actually worth it and bundle trips. So e.g. instead of driving to the shop for a handful items every day they instead do a weekly shopping trip where they get everything they need for the week.
Just with changing your driving style you can often save a ton of fuel.
The increased prices also mean that shopping in general goes down. If you don’t have money for unnecessary garbage you buy less unnecessary garbage, thus again helping the economy.
So yes, even in Indiana where you have to drive to your job, higher fuel prices will lead to benefits for the environment.
What do you mean? I LOVE spending $350/mo on gas!! I’m in Illinois, I feel INs pain.
I just bought an electric scooter that goes 20mph, it’ll take 30 minutes to get to work, when it’s not cold or snowy, but saving a tank of gas a month is $100 right there. I’ve already saved multiple trips to the local grocery store with little pick ups here and there. Looking forward to more fuel saving!
Even in places like that, it might cause people to avoid additional, less necessary, car trips.
Say what you will the Iran war has pushed many people and countries to renewable energy.
I honestly don’t completely understand the conservative agenda against renewable energy it allows independence at so many levels. Never have to see a gas pump again. Use the electricity from your house or a solar panel.
I think there’s a very simple explanation, the renewables as in solar and wind energy generation methods show that the world isn’t perfect, that even ignoring the basic notion that natural gas and coal generate CO2 emissions; natural gas, U-235 (used for nuclear power generation), and coal are of a finite supply.
That destroys their ideology that we live in this perfect world with infinite resources, because most conservatives come from a religious background. They are beyond condescending (I know this because I lived in one), even with the world crumbling from gas prices and food, I don’t think they’ll even give a damn that prices are exponentially growing. They live in this fabricated environment abstracted away from the rest of the world.
And donalds & musks shenanigans have solidified the EU and the fight for democracy and independence too.
And that’s where we realize that the two party system is hollow and doesn’t actually represent anything other than greed
If the GOP actually stood for tradition, we would go back to single income households
If the GOP actually stood for self-determination, anyone could change their gender on legal documents
If the GOP actually stood for hard work and personal responsibility, taxes would be proportionately higher for the mega rich, and the working class would be getting proper compensation
If the GOP actually stood for the 2nd amendment, Alex Pretti wouldn’t have been shot to death simply for having a gun on his waist
If the GOP actually stood for Christianity, there would be homes for the homeless everywhere
If the GOP actually stood for isolationism, then this country would not be practicing genocidal foreign policy
And if the GOP actually stood for small government, well there wouldn’t be this whole… craziness
In another world I might have agreed with conservatism, but not in this one, where the meaning itself is a living contradiction
UK here, I had solar panels and a battery installed. My electric bill has gone from being £100-£150 a month down to £20. And that’s with an electric car.
I honestly don’t completely understand the conservative agenda against renewable energy
Because they’re owned by the oil companies, simple as that.
Genuine independence on an individual level is at odds with nationalism
- It’s change from the norm they’ve grown up on. Change is antithetical to conservatism.
- Identity. Conservatism is more tribal.
- Red team vs. blue team - if it harms the “other” then it’s probably good. With a helping of “I want you to hurt like me” mixed in.
We lost the conservatives when Carter espoused it and Reagan dismissed it.
Comrade Trump has made public statements on the billions the US oil industry has profited during his reign.
I fear if you tally up the environmental impact of war, which is more often than not the reason for the rising oil price, it may exceed the savings at the end consumer level.
Yeah I wish the price had gone up without the war, then it would have really been a benefit.
People driving cars are a tiny fraction compared to billionaires and their private jet usage. They can afford any price. More expensive fuel only affects poor people.
Poor people are a tiny fraction compared to billionaires per capita.
But not in total. There are much more poor people than billionaires, and even if each billionaire produces 50 000x the emmisions that a poor person does, all in all the emmissions of poor people are quite relevant too.
(From an equality standpoint obviously billionaires should be emmission-capped or taxed to the point that they aren’t billionaires anymore, there’s no question about that. But poor people’s emmissions are still significant and more than relevant to the climate.)
True but The climate doesn’t care about equality, only emissions.
Higher oil prices also drive electric adoption and overall less consumption as general retail prices rise to reflect transportation costs. Its hard to call deprivation a good thing because people suffer, but if it reduces consumption and waste of resources it is a net benefit for sustainability, just not a politically desirable method.
I want gas prices to keep going up to insane levels as quickly as possible. A major acute pain will cause change.
You’re asking for even more financial stress for probably closer to a billion people who are already struggling. The rich do not care what the fuel costs.
There’s only so much you can change urban sprawl. In the US especially, high gas prices just mean people who are middle-class or below can’t afford to get to work. Last summer, 6% of my salary after tax went into the commute to and from the office.
You can change a ton. Especially in an urban sprawl environment.
Urban sprawl means it’s comparatively easy for people to get PV, heat pumps for heating/cooling and EV chargers at home.
With that, you make yourself completely independent of high gas prices.
Yes, it has high up-front costs, but the long-term benefits are massive. And with enough pain comes political momentum, which can be used to get state subsidies for that kind of stuff and that way you and your country can become independent of importing fossil fuels while at the same time reducing harm to the climate.
And yes, it needs to hurt quite bad first to cause such a big systematic change.
it has high up-front costs, but the long-term benefits are massive
And that’s where the Sam Vimes theory of socioeconomic unfairness comes into play.
One would think so, in theory. Reality shows so far that too many people can’t easily and meaningfully decrease their fuel consumption and will just have to find the money somewhere. And the big consumers just raise the prices of the products they ship to compensate.
