High gas prices? How’d the heck that happen?

AP: Gas Prices, Oil Rise to New Records
Gas prices at the pumps are officially the highest they’ve ever been in North America, even higher than during the oil crisis of the 1970s when adjusted for inflation. Yet for many, the concept of higher gas prices seems to be coming as a cold shock. Complaints abound, along with accusations of price fixing, and complicated websites have popped up to share information about where the cheapest gas can be purchased. These efforts are akin to rearranging the furniture on the deck of the sinking Titanic.  The reality is that many have seen these prices coming for decades, the prices will only continue to rise, and despite lots of warning we’ve done almost nothing to prepare for it.

The only proper solution is to reduce our reliance on oil, which means driving less and making the necessary changes to our lifestyles, cities, suburbs and transit systems in order to facilitate this. Yet even last year, truck and SUV sales rose, and suburban sprawl continued right up until the Great Mortgage Collapse. It seems we don’t learn any lessons until we are absolutely forced to; and by then, they could be some very harsh lessons indeed.  High oil prices filter through almost every area of our economy, hurting every single one of us — even those of us who don’t drive.

When did all this happen? Probably when you were watching American Idol and laughing at Britney Spears.

File under “why bother”.

Bloomberg: Canada Requiring Oil-Sands Projects to Store Carbon
The Canadian government today announced a plan to limit the carbon emissions from the booming oil sands development in Alberta. How? By requiring any new oil sands development projects after 2012 to sequester their carbon. That means another four full years of wholesale carbon emitting, followed by a weak-kneed law that already presents obvious loopholes (my first thought: what exactly constitutes a “new project”?) The oil sands industry is the largest carbon emitter in Canada, itself one of the worst carbon-emitting countries in the world. It is embarrassing that amid so much wealth there is so little interest in offsetting the damage the extraction causes.

Cold War v2.0: Oil & Gas Edition

Financial Times: Gazprom steps up Ukraine gas war
Russia is reducing natural gas supplies to Ukraine, claiming that the country has not paid its bills. Ukraine claims it is trying to negotiate but Russia is not responding. Because crucial gas pipelines between Central Asia and Europe pass through Ukraine, the EU is alarmed, and shortages could soon spread. It is unfortunate that we now find that much of Europe’s energy stability in the hands of Russia, a country with a freshly entrenched dictator who is delighting in the renewed power oil wealth brings his nation after a decade of humiliating poverty.

Oil up. Again. Repeat.

BBC: Oil price hovers near record high
The familiar forces of high demand and turmoil in oil-producing nations have sent the price of oil rising again over recent weeks, this time topping the $103-per-barrel mark.  Oddly, it still has not sunk in for many people that these high and rising prices will be the new normal, and this will have an enormous impact on the cost of everything we buy from now on — including food.

Alberta’s tentative greens

Toronto Star: Albertans looking a little Green
Even in the midst of Alberta’s oil sands windfall, some Albertans are beginning to have reservations about whether the profits are worth destroying the province’s natural resources.  For some, this is even shaking their longstanding support for the federal Conservative party.

More money into cleaner energy

CNN: Pressure, private cash driving clean energy
High conventional energy prices are bringing more and more investment into alternative energies like wind, solar, geothermal, and even nuclear power, and the energy research group CERA predicts that in the coming years these will move from the fringe to the mainstream.