WTF is Amtrak doing in the rest of the nation? California Amtrak is lowering prices on the valley line… something I attribute to the gas prices. More passengers per train = lower cost per passenger. Lower cost means more passengers forgoing the drive for the ride. It’s taking advantage of a chance to raise efficiency.

Can y’all call for better management of your trains?

1. Decouple farming from oil (farming equipment, basic logistic transportation, etc.) I don’t think it is a stretch to create electric/hydrogen farming machinery.

One would also imagine, some sort of fuel cell/electric truck system to transport farming product to distribution point is easy.

2. Really push for low gas mileage. (doubling it within 5 years for basic sedan isn’t far fetch)

3. Tax recreational utility car to the moon. Wanna drive SUV? how about 500% tax + 1000% pollution tax. (okay maybe not that high, but if somebody want to play macho and pollute the planet. Show the money.

4. Time to kill suburban. Commuting 40-50minutes doesn’t make sense. It is time to design smarter city. (think Oakland, Seattle, Amsterdam, etc)

Suburban is the very essence of waste. (land use, ecological footprint, transportation cost, etc)

If I were the power that be. I’ll build a city like Monaco or Amsterdam. Except sprinkled with mega high rise and plenty of mix use open space. This instead of medium/lowrise.

Precisely. And that’s why deep6 has it figured out: Government’s role in setting energy policy should be to impose the costs of energy on the users, not to attempt to level the playing field so that taxation of energy use is less regressive.

The reality is that the market can solve the energy crisis and the climate crisis given the right set of inputs, and governments cannot–or we would have done it already.

If we taxed carbon use flatly, and stopped subsidizing Big Oil to the tune of about 20 billion dollars a year, Big Oil would be motivated to clean up its act. Tomorrow.

Obviously markets can’t solve problems they are incentivized to ignore, and they’re lousy mechanisms for setting policies and goals. What markets are really good at innovating solutions to problems that cost existing businesses money or create opportunities for profit in new kinds of businesses. Capitalism is incredibly creative.

However, at this time our energy policies hobble that creativity by subsidizing dumbth at the corporate level.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/06/AR2008050600498.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Oil nears $123 on $200 oil prediction, supply concerns

Oil futures blasted to a new record near $123 a barrel Tuesday, gaining momentum as investors bought on a forecast of much higher prices and on any news hinting at supply shortages. Retail gas prices edged lower, but appear poised to rise to new records of their own in coming weeks.

A new Goldman Sachs prediction that oil prices could rise to $150 to $200 within two years seemed to motivate much of Tuesday’s buying, although a falling dollar and increasing concerns about declining crude production in Mexico and Russia contributed, analysts say.

The Energy Department raised its oil and gasoline price forecasts, but also predicted that high prices will cut demand more than previously thought.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery jumped to a new record of $122.73 a barrel before retreating to settle up $1.87 at $121.84 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Thank you.

e.g. a per-gallon carbon tax

Where would you pay that? At the pump, for example? That’s a good idea, I wonder why no one’s thought of it before/