American Views Abroad

 
High gasoline prices don't faze US drivers according to an article in the IHT.

'Experts note that people are driving longer distances to work because of suburban sprawl, the improvements in mass transit have fallen behind over the years, and the practice of driving to malls and ferrying kids around has become part of the US lifestyle. .....Our preliminary analysis is showing vehicle choice is less sensitive to gas prices today than compared with the 1970s. We might be buying fewer SUVs, but a lot of the shifting is to cars that are not appreciably more fuel efficient, such as minivans, according to Christopher Knittel, an economics professor at the University of California.'
www.iht.com/articles/2007/03/30/business/gas.php

A very disturbing disconnect -- the article claims oil imports supply about 60 percent of US needs. There is the war in Iraq, a danger that it expands into Iran, and the need to at least try to cooperate on climate change with the rest of the world, and yet even less change in habits than 30 years ago.
- posted by Gloria @ 3:48 PM