bo_knows:
Gasoline prices are up almost 15 percent in the last week to 10 days. The statewide price for regular is now $4.67, vs. $3.87 across the country. Here in Silicon Valley, if you make $8 to $15 an hour, you are living in shared housing and driving an older, less fuel efficient car. Unless you live in San Francisco, or maybe the Berkeley-Oakland area, the concept of "reliable" public transit is not applicable. You are probably driving a less efficient, older car to get yourself to work and any where else you need to go. You are not going to move closer to your job, because your rent would be more than your paycheck. You are not going to give up your job and look for another one closer to home, because there likely isn't another job.
TheDude:
Technology evolves and prices come down. Look at solar systems. However, not everyone can take advantage, even at lower prices. Tell me how an $8 to $15 and hour worker is going to afford that Prius or Volt?
Jamesqf:
Why don't you walk around some of the neighborhoods where the folks you want to convert live, and suggest they all buy Volts? Imagine what folks whose annual wages are less than the cost of a Volt will say to that. Unless you LIVE in California, you do not share the gasoline market, even if you live in the same district. California has special fuel blends, which cost more to begin with and I believe are only refined in Califirnia. Add a pipeline breakdown, a refinery fire, and some planned maintenance on a Southern California refinery, and you get disruptive price spikes. These prices are disruptive to the economy. Even the governor woke up and mandated moving to the less expensive winter blend early to mitigate the damage.
Folks, no one is arguing we don't need to move away from oil. Even T. Boone Pickens suggested wind power for our electricity and natural gas to power our cars. However, energy must be available at inexpensive and consistent prices for a stable economy. Raising the prices of the currently used sources of energy, especially by fiat, just puts a drag on the economy and impoverishes more than a few people.