The Wall Street Journal says things are probably not looking up in the oil and gas crisis:
In the U.S., $200 crude would push the price of gasoline to well over $6 a gallon, causing commuters to alter their driving habits more sharply than they have already, while putting extreme strains on large sectors of the U.S. economy.
Speaking as one member of a strained-large-sector-to-be, I am wondering what I can plan ahead to do by December… or, indeed, what I can do now that I haven’t done already… to make economic survival possible.
I’m already driving a car that gets 33 mpg, and, except for going the 15 miles back and forth to work 3 days a week (4 this coming fall), I have limited my driving to the half mile to the grocery and the gym. No more exciting trips to visit friends or relatives. No vacation travel. This part of life has already been cut back and become utterly boring (but has kept me from spending money in many places where I would have before). West Virginia has little-to-no public transportation, so that’s out as well.
I’ve cut down doing my laundry to once a week… and doing cold-water washing at that. I used to do laundry twice a week and always used hot water. I wear things for longer periods, now… and for that I hope to be forgiven by the local style mavens.
Sweaters come out of the closet this fall…heat gets cut down on, even though we’re an all electric house… sooner or later the ticket goes back to the oil prices.
Most of all, I’m going to encourage everyone I know to get the Republicans who left us with this mess out of office… and I don’t feel too partial to some of the Democrats who helped them when there are more progressive ones available.
