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Talk of $200/barrel for oil, $6/gallon at pump!
Written by Terri Hall   
Tuesday, 08 July 2008
Link to article here.

Oil's Rapid Rise Stirs Talk of $200 a Barrel This Year
Long List of Factors Keeps Prices High; Releasing Reserves?
By NEIL KING JR.
Wall Street Journal
July 7, 2008; Page A6

Oil's historic ascent from $100 to nearly $150 a barrel in just six months is lending weight to a far grimmer prediction: Crude could reach $200 a barrel by the end of the year.

Oil at that price would wreak deeper havoc on the world's airlines and automobile industries.

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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. In Europe, it would stir more political unrest and increase the clamor to cut the continent's stiff petrol taxes. In Asia, governments would be under pressure to cut fuel subsidies and risk a popular backlash.

U.S. benchmark crude prices leapt 3.6% last week, closing before the Independence Day holiday at a record $145.29 a barrel. Roughly halfway through the year, oil prices have soared 50% since Jan. 1 and have doubled since the same time last year. (See related article.)

Few oil watchers are now ready to bet that oil will hit $200 a barrel by New Year's Eve. But nearly all are wary of predicting how and when oil's upward stampede will be reversed.
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High gas prices = death of the suburbs as economics forces change
Written by Terri Hall   
Tuesday, 08 July 2008

Link to article here.

It's obvious to everyone but road builders and politicians that $4 a gallon for gas is the breaking point for Americans. There is no more money in the family budget for transportation, and it's causing major lifestyle changes and the emptying of one's savings account just to fill the gas tank today.

There just aren't enough motorists with the discretionary income to make toll roads financially viable any longer. The massive amounts of leveraged debt to erect these toll projects is a house of cards the size of the mortgage crisis or BIGGER. We all know who bailed that out, we, the taxpayers, did. Time to head this crisis off at the pass and defeat this push for toll roads NOW!

America's love affair fades as the car becomes burden of suburbia
By Paul Harris
The Observer (UK)
Sunday, July 6, 2008

The nation of road movies, freeway freedom and dreams of endless horizons is waking up to the reality of soaring fuel prices. Paul Harris in Riverside, California, reports that people are leaving their gas guzzlers in the garageIt is known as the Inland Empire: a vast stretch of land tucked in the high desert valleys east of Los Angeles. Once home to fruit trees and Indians, it is now a concrete sprawl of jammed freeways, endless suburbs and shopping malls.

But here, in the heartland of the four-wheel drive, a revolution is under way. What was once unthinkable is becoming a shocking reality: America's all-consuming love affair with the car is fading.

Surging petrol prices have worked where environmental arguments have failed. Many Americans have long been told to cut back on car use. Now, facing $4-a-gallon fuel, they have no choice.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 July 2008 )
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Jobs slashed, not the time for toll roads
Written by Terri Hall   
Tuesday, 08 July 2008

Link to article here.

Employers cut jobs for 6th straight month
By JEANNINE AVERSA
Associated Press
7/3/2008

Employers cut payrolls by 62,000 in June, the sixth straight month of nationwide job losses, underscoring the economy's fragile state. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.5 percent.

The latest snapshot of business conditions, released by the Labor Department on Thursday, showed continued caution on the part of employers who are chafing under high energy prices and are uncertain about how long the economy will be stuck in a sluggish mode, reflecting fallout from housing, credit and financial troubles.

Heavy job losses in construction, manufacturing and financial services, along with cuttbacks in retailing, eclipsed job gains in education and health services, leisure and hospitality, and government.
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Newsflash

Poll: Texans don’t want tolls, gas tax hikes

Link to poll story here or read it below.

The headline declares Texans want their roads fixed but don't want to pay for them. But it's not a matter of not wanting to fund them, it's a matter of economics. Texans don't have any more money to give to transportation with gas at $4 a gallon! The cost of living is rising much faster than our ability to pay for it. Then, when you consider TxDOT spending $100,000 a month on lobbyists and $9 million on an ad campaign pushing toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor, frivolous spending like $18 million rest stops with free Wi-Fi, and the endless raiding from our gas taxes that we ALREADY PAY for roads, it's no wonder Texans are in no mood for tax hikes.

Add to all that the fact that the State of Texas has had surplus after surplus (which is a result of overtaxation) with another $15 billion surplus projected by the start of next year's legislative session, Texans don't believe the State is out of money or that we're taxed too little, not for one minute!

I found it interesting that the poll didn't use numbers at all like amount of gas tax hike or any cost comparisons on toll project costs versus freeways. Like on US 281, to keep it a freeway would cost $170 million, but to make it a toll road, it will cost $1.3 billion. This would likely draw much stronger opposition to tolling existing roads given that information. They also shied away from informing people about the specific number of lane-miles slated to be tolled and how much they'd pay per mile in tolls versus gas tax, which would help people make a more informed comparison of the choices and show that it will be difficult to avoid taking the more expensive toll roads with so many in the queue.

Nonetheless the message is clear, Texans don't want tolls or higher transportation costs, period.

New poll shows Texans want better roads, don't want to pay for them
By CHRISTY HOPPE / The Dallas Morning News
Wednesday, June 25, 2008

AUSTIN – Texans think congestion is a serious problem and want road improvements, but a solid majority is adamantly against paying at the toll booth or gas pump for bigger and better highways, a poll released today shows.
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