If you want people to stop driving SUVs and drive more fuel efficient cars, the best way to do that is to keep gas prices high. If you want to put pressure on the auto industry to develop more efficient vehicles, then keep gas prices high. If you want to stop urban sprawl into forest and farmland, then keep gas prices high. And if you want to create a public and corporate demand for alternative energy sources, then keep gas prices high.
I have cut my car use in half since gas prices have risen. Now I walk or take the train. Bike sales are going up. So why are we complaining? Clearly high gas prices are good for the environment. They will encourage a new urbanism already happening in the largest of our cities. Right now in Chicago and New York, many people live in a centralized location near downtown because transportation by car is already too expensive for most people. Gas is higher priced, parking is astronomical in cost, and congestion is ridiculous. People take the subway, the train, or ride bikes.
What high gas prices will do is force people to live closer to where the work or closer to public transportation even in smaller cities with no parking problems. It will mean turning ghettos just outside of downtown into safe neighborhoods again. Just like where I live. It will boost the use of bicycles and public transportation.
High gas prices are the environmentalist's and conservationist's friends. And I welcome their arrival to America.
Of course, this may put a lot of stress on working families, and increase the price of all shipped goods. But this could be made up for by expanded bus routes, and higher government subsidies for non-fuel costs such as food, and for manditory costs such as heating gas. Rural communities may get hit the hardest, as by nature, public transportation is tougher to implement there. Hybrid cars will help. But rural communities can more easily survive on wind and solar power. Perhaps tax breaks on such items as solar panels might help in this regard, too.
I doubt that gas will sink much lower in price ever. But once we get over the initial bumps, this may be the best thing to hit the American environment.