Comments on: What Would Happen if We Had to Ration Gasoline?

By: Blade

Blade — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 00:24:24 +0000

Fuel is NOT CHEAP at $3.00 a gallon!
$1.00 a gallon is cheap.

By: Dam

Dam — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 19:52:50 +0000

Granted, it would be great to get some of the better technologies on the market, but let’s not hope for rationing or any other drastic change!

By: Rob

Rob — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 20:47:51 +0000

Don’t forget that Dick Cheney says that “the American way of life is non-negotiable.”

Based on this, if we run out of cheap, easy fossil fuel products I will hold my breath and eat dirt until someone fixes it.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 14:49:23 +0000

I would like to think that people would start car-pooling or taking mass-transit as an easy way to save on using their gas for routine things like going to work. That way your ‘allotment’ of gas could be used to goto the beach or vacation or whatever. Although on the other hand, we Americans tend to have that ‘I will do what I want when I want’ attitude.

I think the majority of the reason we CONTINUE to pay for gas no matter what the price, is that its still relatively cheap.

By: damo

damo — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 12:27:06 +0000

first, they would only ration it if they had to, cause the gov earns taxes off each gal you pump. if they hike the price, the taxes follow it up and the government is set to earn even more off it unless someone caps their earnings. as tax is a %, not a set amount. rationing would take place where fuel is already through the floor and gas stations are running out too quick, to be fair they would ration it across buyers. but theres other impacts by this stage, food and goods that your oil ships will be passing on the costs in their products, services would go bankrupt. cabbies out of work, any mobile business is out of business if they cant pass on the costs to the public that is spending all their money on fuel to drive to work, to earn the money that buys the limited fuel…. repeat. the big 3 would lay off workers as car sales drop out of the sky. your 9 trillion deficit would come back to eat the US into a recession as it will be unable to support the surge of unemployeed. your imports would stop and send even more people out of work as other countries deny loans on the goods your paying already today. you army would have troubles supporting its mass, your airlines would feel the barrel prices and passengers drops and be grounded. your tourism industry would collapse.

i only pray oil lasts long enough for the world to get itself off of it. for the well being of the economy and the planet itself. the governments of the world would never ration unless food and armies required it. no oil, peak oil or a warming planet is the least of concern when china and india surge skywards in their thirst for it, competing for the dying oil fields. although they both will hit serious water disasters before we get to this by the looks.

the world could be heading for a series of horrific events – of the likes that none have ever recorded.

or we could heading for clean, green and peaceful future where all humans see a healthy and meaningful way of life.

… well that rant got away from me. sorry this is a draft too ;p

By: islandboy

islandboy — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 00:18:29 +0000

with the massive federal budget spent freeing / protecting our oil resources ( tell me we are freeing the iraqi people), our country could be a leader in alternative energy, ( put out the subsidy, and business will follow). maybe a fuel crisis would do some good.
p.s. unless electric/hybrid cars are plugging into clean energy, they are only relocating the pollution.

By: snakeRO

snakeRO — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:44:46 +0000

I don’t agree with rationing, but i would be more than OK with let’s say $7-8/gallon. Because at 8$/gal I would sell my 200HP V6 and buy something smaller, and the guy that buys my car I assume would have enough money to pay for the gas. But with rationing, I better dump that car at the junkyard, nobody would buy my car just to look at it for half month.
But anyway, if some “shock therapy” is needed to throw away the trucks, vans and suvs, then, that’s it

Or some gov program like “Bring your SUV now and leave with a new, reliable compact and $1000″. Would that work?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 02:20:53 +0000

What Would Happen if We Had to Ration Gasoline?

As long as gasoline is cheap, convenient and readily available there will never be a strong push for more fuel efficient vehicles or cleaner, renewable fuels. It’s probably safe to say that if the Federal Government put restrictions on the amount of g…