A Train to Nowhere - The Facts About Foreign Oil Dependence
The common wisdom is that if we can just reduce personal automobile use then we can get free from our dependence on foreign oil. This is often the justification put forth for building rail as a transit option. The truth is personal automobile use is the lesser portion of this nation’s need for crude oil. Alan Reynolds explains this is interesting detail.
“Commuter and leisure driving accounts for little more than 40 percent of the oil we consume — far less than the amount we import. The rest of each barrel of crude is used for heating oil and diesel fuel for trucks, busses, farm machinery and ships (23 percent), petrochemicals (17 percent), jet fuel (9 percent), asphalt (4 percent) and propane (4 percent). “
The real factor driving the price of crude, and therefore gasoline, is industrial production which demands the greater portion of each barrel of crude. If industrial production falls because the price of crude rises to unacceptable levels there will be more crude and gas prices will fall but the other side of the coin will be no jobs to commute to. Then we can all ride a train to nowhere.
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