> Date:    Wed, 20 Mar 2002 10:53:41 -0500
> From:    "G. Matthew Bulley" <gmbulley@BULLEY-HEWLETT.COM>
> Subject: Re: Gas went up $0.13 a gal overnight what's up?
>
> John nails it home. There is no reason to "fear" $3.50-$5.50 fuel
> prices.
>
> *If* fuel prices skyrocket in our lifetime (which is very likely), many
> things will change, but that is good. There are many things that *need*
> to change.
>
> The USA could use a REAL high-speed rail network. We could use vehicles
> that get 100mpg and produce fewer emissions. We could use a
> manufacturing employment in our region. I'd like to see fields of
> vegetables grown near my home, as was the case up until about 1960 (my
> town was one of the East Coast's largest produce markets). I'd like to
> be able to take a trolley/tram to the neighboring towns (as one once
> could). Many of these things are not cost-competitive today, but would
> become wonderfully necessary if fuel were $5.50.
>
A high-speed rail network will never happen in the USA.
Where I live they are trying to build a 'light-rail' system of just a couple of fairly
short
lines - they have been doing studies and talking about it for years. The studies alone
have
cost millions - no property owner wants their land to be taken - but everyone wants a rail

stop on their block.
Rail companies must pay the cost of laying/maintaining the track and the land to put it
on.
In contrast, the motor vehicle industry is massively subsidised and does not have to bear
the
cost of building roads - that is paid for by the federal government, states or local
authorities.
If the car manufacturers had to bear the entire cost of building and maintaining the
nation's
road network, and also paying for the pollution their vehicles spew out, a car would
probably
cost $250,000.

I agree that the best thing that could ever happen in the USA would be for fuel prices to
increase to European levels. This would force vehicle manufacturers to build smaller and
more
efficient vehicles and thus we would become more independent of the overseas oil
nations.

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