tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26681372.post1284779087068533000..comments2024-03-21T00:18:25.414-07:00Comments on I See Japan...from L.A.: High Gas Prices - A Permanent Shift?owenandbenjaminhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09474307542498791351noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26681372.post-25558429283221970582008-06-24T07:01:00.000-07:002008-06-24T07:01:00.000-07:00I agree. Government subsidies in these huge count...I agree. Government subsidies in these huge countries are just one factor but one most people don't know about.<BR/><BR/>I read in the news yesterday that politicians want to restrict the traders and speculators because they are blamed for a lot of the price. The politicians claim that they can reduce the cost of gas by half by putting limits on the commodities traders.<BR/><BR/>I actually hope they don't and in a way, I kind of wish the cost of gas does not go down much. Eventually the high cost of gas worldwide, including China and India, will reduce consumption and pollution.owenandbenjaminhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09474307542498791351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26681372.post-41116325879857769042008-06-23T17:01:00.000-07:002008-06-23T17:01:00.000-07:00Hi Jon,Great post! Certainly we are living in int...Hi Jon,<BR/>Great post! Certainly we are living in interesting times.<BR/><BR/>Its amazing to see that all the rhetoric about seriously looking for technology solutions and doing our best to reduce output couldn't do what a simple change of price in oil has done. Its fantastic to see more people on trains and (perhaps) an end to large vehicle addiction. Though to be fair oil consumption is not really down, its just more of it is being burned in China and India and less in USA. I think its unfortunate that today Saudi Arabia decided to increase output. Hopefully it won't undo all of this.<BR/><BR/>I don't think its fair to say that the ball is now in Mexico, China and India's court. People in USA and Australia still produce a lot more CO2 than they do. And to be fair people in those places (and there are billions of them) simply aspire to live a lifestyle like we already do. We'd better make sure that when they achieve that target we've already moved the goalposts to some kind of sustainable model. The ball is clearly in our court.<BR/><BR/>cheers,<BR/>daviddavidfromozhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05584920114012153504noreply@blogger.com