Cushing, Oklahoma, dubs itself the pipeline crossroads of the world. The tagline is emblazoned on a giant roadside sign fashioned out of pipes on the corner of Main Street and South Stiles Road. It has a valve and everything.
In multiple ways, we are seeing the end of the oil age.
Higher gas prices should promote more conservative driving habits as well, but they don’t. People don’t drive the speed limits now, they won’t slow down to save money, and they make automated enforcement a political liability, ensuring anyone who tries to rein them in gets the boot. Will sure be interesting if they completely run out, but just like the band continued to play while the Titanic went down, it’s going to be business as usual here until reality slaps us in the face.
EV owners were derided for driving “slowly” (within the speed limit!) to save power and not have worries about charging, so we do know that car owners will actually do stuff like that once they’re actually concerned. Fossil fuels still seem to be cheap enough that people don’t, though.
Higher gas prices should promote more conservative driving habits as well, but they don’t. People don’t drive the speed limits now, they won’t slow down to save money, and they make automated enforcement a political liability, ensuring anyone who tries to rein them in gets the boot. Will sure be interesting if they completely run out, but just like the band continued to play while the Titanic went down, it’s going to be business as usual here until reality slaps us in the face.
EV owners were derided for driving “slowly” (within the speed limit!) to save power and not have worries about charging, so we do know that car owners will actually do stuff like that once they’re actually concerned. Fossil fuels still seem to be cheap enough that people don’t, though.
I am not sure that rational choices by EV drivers can be generalized to the population as a whole. Consider the “roll coal” tinky winkies.