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Originally Posted by Torplexed
Wanna actually encourage conservation? Let the price continue to go up. Nothing impacts consumer behavior like taking it in the wallet. If the price goes too high people will change their driving habits and cut back on their use and eventually that'll result in a glut on the market causing the price to come back down.
But when the govenment steps in and starts monkeying with the system for a few short term gains...it usually creates more problems than it solves.
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I agree with this completely. Part of the problem is derived from the meddling of gas prices in the past with the result that alternative sources of energy and of transportation have remained comparatively expensive and thus either undeveloped or barely utilized. Now consumers are taking it in the wallet and any more meddling will only further America's dependence on fossil fuels and postpone the day of reckoning. But it will come all the same, and likely be even more severe.
Will that stop politicians from meddling to keep gas prices artificially low? Doubtful. They're in for a short term of office and then the problem becomes someone else's. While the voters possess an unusual sense of entitlement for cheap gasoline, which is unreasonable given the US hit peak oil in the 70s, and will lay the blame for high prices on the doorstep of whoever happens to be elected. Though that's not to say that they are entirely blameless either.
I cited the US though some of this is somewhat true in Canada as well. Although I would say we don't have quite the same sense of entitlement toward cheap gasoline, have better developed and more extensive mass transportation, and are subject to more extreme weather that provides a rationale for a more widespread use of more fuel intensive automobiles.