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Posted by D. Sherman on Saturday, March 01, 2008 at 01:52:38 :
In Reply to: Re: The government has... posted by Steve on Saturday, March 01, 2008 at 01:31:54 :
but I really don't see how government-mandated conservation is really going to make much difference. As the oil gets more scarce and the price goes up, people will use less. Anything the government does is going to only make a slight difference in consumption, because anything more than that would be too painful to accept politically. However, when the oil really runs out, the price will skyrocket. The history of fuel has been the history of one thing after another getting too expensive -- firewood, whale oil, heating oil, electricity, etc. The government didn't have to impose whale oil conservation or firewood conservation, since once they got scarce and the price got too high, people switched to other things. I agree it will some day seem like a waste pissing all that gas down the drain at 8 mpg, just like it now seems like a waste cutting up clear old growth doug fir for logs for steamboat fuel. It just seems to me that anything the government can do will be window-dressing, and the reality is we're just plain going to have to run out. Whether we run out of oil in 20 years without conservation or in 30 years with conservation isn't going to make a lot of difference to people 100 years from now who don't have any.
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