High gas prices are—for lack of better words—good

SPECIAL REPORT: "Toyota's Next Turn: Gas prices soar. The world's top hybrid maker could not be happier," by Rick Newman, U.S. News & World Report, 16 June 2008, p. 40.

I give you the Toyota Tundra at 15 mpg, but also the Prius.

So nobody's perfect.

As the piece says, "Americans are very reluctant downsizers, and every automaker knows what happened after the oil shocks of the 1970s."

Key bit:

Hybrids are still a relatively small portion of Toyota's portfolio—but the biggest opportunity to break away from the pack.

The next step? A hybrid that plugs in at home.

Looking ahead:

The stakes are huge: The automaker that seizes the plug-in market could dominate for years.

And:

Down the road, hydrogen fuel—which could be cheaper than gasoline or plug-ins and generate better mileage still—might offer the most promise of all.

I know, I know. Amory Lovins is a nut.

But I see a lot of good coming from these high prices. The Middle East needed a big resource transfer to handle that 100 million young heading toward non-existent jobs. WE were going to pay that money one way or the other. Hybrids beat bullets and bombs.

Comments

[daskro]

I agree they are good although no politician will claim high energy prices as such.

[jason]

I'm also a fan of high gas prices, but how do they and hybrids help Middle Easterners get jobs?

[Eric]

Beyond the resource transfer to the Middle East done via the high prices you speak of, what do you see as being the next bridge to the future for the youth bulge heading toward those nonexistent jobs?

Short of natural gas succeeding oil as the new transportation fuel, I don't see that the Arab Middle East right now has the education in engineering skills to provide those needed jobs.

If you're seeing something different in your travels there, Dr. Barnett, I'd love to know about!

By the same token, all these transformations require many more Americans trained as engineers, too.

[Tom Barnett]

The job creation required in the Middle East won't revolve merely (or even primarily) around energy.

There is no magical formula: either you go classic manufacturing and work your way up or you try the India route and jump some directly to service sector.

[Michael]

Meaning plastics really is the magical word, at least in oil-rich countries?