- Chris Steiner's book, $20 PER GALLON, methodically
illustrates how American society, in fact, world societies will change
as the price of gasoline inevitably rises to $20 a gallon. Many may scream,
"What about the 100 years of reserves in the Bakken Fields, or the
ocean floor off of Alaska and more fields in the Gulf of Mexico?"
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- Again, emotions and sheer hearsay drive such hopeful
myths. You may call the author a cretin, but the coming rises in the price
of a gallon of gas cannot and will not be mitigated by hysteria. Again,
as a teenager, I once bought gasoline at 19 cents a gallon in a gas war!
If the Bakken fields held such vast quantities of oil as purported-you
would see 19 cents a gallon again! Not!
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- With clever ingenuity, Steiner titles his chapters from
Chapter $5 all the way to Chapter $20. He methodically illustrates how
each of us will be affected by the costs of a gallon of gas. He advances
some positive aspects of bettering humanity as prices rise.
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- "Oil prices enabled the SUV to thrive, but they
will ultimately bury the SUV in its grave," Steiner said. "Americans
will, at long last, embrace diesel when gas reaches $6 a gallon. At the
same time, $6 a gallon will mean fewer lives lost to crumpled steel and
unyielding pavement."
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- Steiner states that people will drive less, slower, smarter
and wiser. Already in 2008 with $4.50 a gallon, Americans drove 100 billion
less miles than they drove in 2007.
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- "Assuming the prices are sustained for a year at
$4.00 a gallon, that would save 1,000 lives every month," Steiner
said. "That's 12,000 people annually, almost a third of those killed
on U.S. roads every year. At $6 a gallon, 15,600 lives will be saved and
at $7 a gallon, 20,000 lives will be saved." Currently, 44,000 Americans
lose their lives on our highways annually.
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- When it comes to good health, Steiner said that rising
prices will mean a trimmer America. Fat people, and America owns the record
for obesity at 150 million plus, will walk or ride a bike. Obesity costs
Americans $117 billion annually in early mortality and medical expenses.
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- "High gas prices will clean up our skies, clear
our vistas and scrub our lungs," Steiner said. "$6 gas will spark
an infrastructure revolution and the era of widespread tolling. The yellow
school bus will disappear from America's roads. High prices will temper
the major league travelling in youth sports. Police will patrol on foot."
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- But hang onto your hats! At $8 a gallon, air travel
will become quite constricted. In fact, Steiner said, "The skies
will empty. When gas inevitably climbs to $8 a gallon, the airline carnage
will be vast and it will come swiftly. When gas prices reach $8, airline
carries will be throwing down 60 percent of their operating costs to fuel.
That cannot be sustained. The ultimate contraction awaits. The airline
dinosaurs will meet their asteroid deaths."
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- Once the airlines cannot service Las Vegas, Vail, Aspen
and Jackson Hole ski areas-as well as many other pricy resorts in the Caribbean-we
will see major changes in the economy. When you cannot pay air fare to
Disneyworld, those attractions will become extinct. Most college bound
teens will see their school choices shrink drastically.
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- "Gas prices of $10 a gallon may seem far away, but
if you look at the fundamentals of the world's supplies, and the certainty
of rising demands, it's a number we will almost definitely see within the
next 10 years," Steiner said. "At the same time, plug-in hybrids
will form the bridge we need to an electric car world."
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- A man named Shai Agassi heads up Better Place, a company
he founded to solve the logistical riddles facing electric cars in a world
and infrastructure built for gasoline. "We don't have a choice,"
he said. "We either do this, or we suffer the catastrophic failures
of economic ruin and global climate change."
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- Steiner said, "Converting our personal transportation
platform from one based on gasoline to one powered by electricity is one
of the most imperative measures we will take in shaping a sustainable future
for our country and for the global civilization as a whole. This will
not be an easy transition. Car ownership will plummet at $10 a gallon.
People will end up forfeiting their cars altogether. Traffic flows on
major arteries will ebb and the side effects that began to take hold at
$6 gas-fewer crash deaths, less pollution, less obesity-will be firing
in full force at $10 gas."
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- With rising gas prices, Steiner says we will face another
big change: plastics! That pesky invention created the Great Pacific Garbage
Patch, trash all over the planet and more gadgets than humans can handle.
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- Part 3: Finding out what will happen when gas rises
from $12 to $20 a gallon. Back to basics for food, for water for living.
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- To take action: First and foremost, join www.numbersusa.com and
become one of nearly a million Americans making impact with pre-written
faxes and phone calls to change immigration policies toward a stable future.
Bi-partisan and highly effective!
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