Climate Gasoline Prices
The Russian invasion of the Ukraine has produced a limited boycott of Russian oil, natural gas and coal. One effect is higher prices for fuel for our millions of autos, and that is politically difficult in our America. Republican officeholders are especially loud in criticizing President Biden and his administration for not doing more to keep gas prices low.
Some politicians will admit that the US and the world needs to lower our present level of hydrocarbon consumption, even as invention proceeds quickly on energy efficiency and getting energy from sources other than hydrocarbons, such as nuclear fission and fusion. Higher prices are efficient ways to lower consumption, but higher prices are politically difficult, and it’s unlikely that our elected officials will move to pricing hydrocarbon as a method of reducing consumption.
All this means is that serious societal disruptions from climate change will happen more quickly and with more force than if we were able to curb our appetites for burning hydrocarbons. So the advice is to make any adjustments you plan to counter the effects of climate change sooner rather than later.
