There has been an awful lot of hand-wringing in the news concerning gasoline prices and its impact on transportation, mass transit use, shipping, city travel, tourism, and most every other sector of the economy. Add to this discussion is the recent carbon tax initiated by the BC Government and the recent mulling of a Federal Carbon Tax from Mr. Stephane Dion of the Liberal Party of Canada. To hear it from the media and call-in radio, we are at the brink of utter collapse across every economic sector, leading to the collapse of our entire system because of these spectacular high prices.
Just how bad is it?
We have a long way to go before North America even comes close to world prices. Our issue is structural. We have designed our urban environment - cities, towns, industry - based upon a premise of cheap oil - cheaper than water. Gas is still a great deal (how much is a litre of water going for?) but now that price point isn't working so well with how we've laid ourselves out. That is going to have to change, and it's going to be a paradigm shift that is going to hurt - but one that is inevitable.
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