That's a good question.

Star Tribune (MN): Will we put the pedal to the metal again?

"We're right in the middle of a major change in people's driving habits. We don't know if it's going to stick," said Frank Pafko, director of the Minnesota Department of Transportation's office of environmental services.

Dawn Duffy, spokeswoman for AAA Minneapolis, believes larger economic pressures will keep driving mileage down, even with cheaper gas.

"When gas was averaging $2.50, we wondered: Is that going to change people's habits? It did not," she said. "When it finally went over $4 this summer, it changed our habits, and those habits have continued. People don't have that disposable income."

I think the U.S. is likely to see reduced consumption for oil as the black hole of capitalism sucks more and more money. Even though the price of gas is down, fewer Americans can afford to drive like they did even a year ago.

I think that most people can make the connection that the fall in gasoline prices is not due to supplies being unlimited.

People will always have in their mind the possibility, if not probability, of $4.00 gas and will make their dispositions accordingly.

I agree with Kunstler that this is a game changing moment.

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson

... short horizon demand response and long horizon demand response.

Having experienced $4/gallon gas, it is no longer unimaginable. And so if people are buying new cars ... which they will start doing sooner or later, even if economic conditions remained depressed ... they will imagine gas prices that were simply crazy talk in 2005.

However, in depressed economic conditions, it becomes even more critical to address the difference between cost-to-buy and cost-to-own, which is one thing to lobby a new Obama administration for ... a feebate, with an excise on vehicles under current fleet average efficiency and a rebate on vehicles more than twice current fleet average efficiency ... especially a feebate with the rebate focused on vehicles manufactured in North America, would be worth pushing for.


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.