The Morality of Oil Prices<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As I write this, oil prices have dropped below $50 a barrel for the first time in almost two years, down from over $140 back in the summer. Last night I\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2008\/11\/the-morality-of-oil-prices.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Morality of Oil Prices\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As I write this, oil prices have dropped below $50 a barrel for the first time in almost two years, down from over $140 back in the summer. 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{"id":617,"date":"2008-11-20T09:50:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-20T09:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2008\/11\/the-morality-of-oil-prices\/"},"modified":"2008-11-20T09:50:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-20T09:50:00","slug":"the-morality-of-oil-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2008\/11\/the-morality-of-oil-prices.html","title":{"rendered":"The Morality of Oil Prices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This is a good thing, right? I\u2019m not so sure.<\/p>\n

First, oil and gas prices have dropped because the world is in the middle of a deep recession. This is kinda like losing weight because you were sick and couldn\u2019t eat \u2013 you\u2019ll take it, but it isn\u2019t a bargain you\u2019d willingly make. The $120 a month we\u2019re saving on gas is a drop in the bucket compared to what we\u2019ve lost in our retirement savings. And cheaper gas is cold comfort if you\u2019ve lost your job.<\/p>\n

Mainly, though, high prices encourage people to change their behavior. Sales of SUVs are way down, sales of small cars are up. More people are taking public transportation (which is rather limited in DFW, but every little bit helps). Burning less gas means less oil to import from countries we\u2019d rather not support and it means less CO2 emissions contributing to global warming.<\/p>\n

Further, high prices encourage innovation. Biofuels and electric cars aren\u2019t economically viable if gas is $1.73 a gallon. People who truly care about the environment will pay more to pollute less (if they can), but the vast majority of people won\u2019t.<\/p>\n

There is one environmentally good side to lower prices \u2013 at $50 a barrel the Alberta tar sands <\/a>and other high-impact sources of oil aren\u2019t viable.<\/p>\n

Americans have shown we have short memories and a short planning horizon \u2013 my best guess is that the only reason SUV sales haven\u2019t picked up is that credit is still too tight. I hope the memory of $4 gas will mean the shift to more efficient vehicles is permanent, but I tend to doubt it.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"