The US economy includes trillions of dollars in fixed autosprawl assets. Refineries, cul-de-sacs, pipelines, pedestrian overpasses, parking lots, big box stores, military hardware, -- almost everything in the US is related to cars and sprawl.
Now oil is no longer cheap. Never mind the price, look and the number of energy units, joules, calories, BTUs. From now on it costs more energy to produce oil every day. In some cases, such as tar sands, more energy goes in than comes out. Huh? Yes, if you count all the costs including pollution, cancer, and carbon dioxide emissions. But the need for liquid fuel to too strong to stop.
The US can no longer even afford the maintenance costs for roads and bridges. In addition, it cannot afford to allow others to control supply sources and routes. As it gets more desperate it will turn to nuclear weapons to fight the oil wars.
The only way out is to start unwinding sprawl as quickly as possible. This could be done with car-free cities, but the oil industry is too powerful to allow this to happen at the federal level. It is up to the people to make buses free at the local level.
Now oil is no longer cheap. Never mind the price, look and the number of energy units, joules, calories, BTUs. From now on it costs more energy to produce oil every day. In some cases, such as tar sands, more energy goes in than comes out. Huh? Yes, if you count all the costs including pollution, cancer, and carbon dioxide emissions. But the need for liquid fuel to too strong to stop.
The US can no longer even afford the maintenance costs for roads and bridges. In addition, it cannot afford to allow others to control supply sources and routes. As it gets more desperate it will turn to nuclear weapons to fight the oil wars.
The only way out is to start unwinding sprawl as quickly as possible. This could be done with car-free cities, but the oil industry is too powerful to allow this to happen at the federal level. It is up to the people to make buses free at the local level.
