High gas prices threaten to shut down rural towns »
Posted by: STONERS 2 months, 1 week agoThis community may be an extreme example of how rising gas prices are hitting rural Americans particularly hard, but people in small towns from Maine to Alaska are in a similar bind as those here.
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STONERS2 months, 1 week ago
"Soaring gas prices are a double-whammy for many rural residents: They often pay more than people who live in cities and suburbs because of the expense of hauling fuel to their communities, and they must drive greater distances for life's necessities: work, groceries, medical care and, of course, gas."
"Meanwhile, incomes typically are lower in rural areas, making increasingly high gas prices an especially urgent concern. Rural households also are more likely to have older, less fuel-efficient vehicles such as pickups, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) says. The average age of a vehicle in a rural household: 8.7 years, compared with 7.9 years for an urban vehicle."
"Rural residents do more driving, too an average of 3,100 miles a year more than urban dwellers," the FHWA says.
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mark-stevens2 months ago
I think gas stations are becoming obsolete. Exxon is selling "ALL" of their stations, ARCO is selling all of their west coast stations. I drove by a major Chevron free way station today... had a big sign CLOSED LOST LEASE!!!!
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mark-stevens2 months ago
Up here in western Washington, small towns are made up of $30 an hour Boeing workers that have been driving 45 minutes to work.
The land was cheap, so was gas. Now those small towns are becoming dead towns cause the families can't buy gas and those little extras!!
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JohnQPublicComment removed: User banned.1 Reply
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mesodude2 months ago
And still we hear nothing from our leadership (the President or the Congress) about conserving. We're using less and prices continue to surge.
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JohnQPublicComment removed: User banned.5 Replies
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texangelwings2 months, 1 week ago
Good idea 1basque1! I am going to write to the Amtrak rail company asking them to get their old stations back open! I would ride the rail rather than drive the car, if a train stop was closer. Amtrak travels through my local town!
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y_soitenly2 months ago
1basque1,
Re: "Maybe the trains that are subsidized by the government can start delivering all of these small towns by rail !"
The price of train tickets have gone up too because of the fuel issue.
Almost all trains run on either diesel, or electricity. Only a handful of coal-powered trains are still in operation, and usually on a very limited basis.
Modern locomotives are mostly diesel-electric hybrids. The fuel, the energy source is diesel.
Most metro rail systems use either electric lines over the tracks (most parts of the Seoul metro system, for example) or electrified rails (most entirely-underground subway systems).
Steam locomotives, powered by coal-fired boilers, may still operate in some third-world countries, and are sometimes found on a limited basis as a tourist attraction (Japan Railways has one in Hokkaido, for instance).
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texangelwings2 months, 1 week ago
The threat has become reality in two small towns not far from where I live! Two station in one town and 1 in another town.
Thanks STONERS!
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Gransater2 months ago
I agree it is a bit extreme. I would like to know how common it really is. I suspect it is becoming less extreme by the day. I travel a lot, in rural areas, and lately I'm seing more and more small bussiness boarded up.
As to the people living out of town d/t affordability, if the time comes when thay can't afford the fuel, their only options will be to stay put and rely on self sufficiency, which many aren't knowlegeble enough to do, or move in to town and live in less desirable neighborhoods.
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Gransater2 months ago
We are slowly evolving into a banana republic, where 90% of the money is in 5% of the households. For the rest of us life getting tougher by the day. The stories I read in the article, are identical to what I've seen in S. America long time ago. Down there, eventually people moved to the big towns, to live in the crime infested ghetos, you can see today.
In our future, if this trend continues, we're going to have to revert back to horse and buggy for all non essential travel. Alt energy vehicles are around the corner, but will we be able to afford them?
The great American dream is turning into the great American nightmare for way too many of us.
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Gransater2 months ago
Hi Libs
Have you got anything constructive to say, or are you just negging out of habit. Maybe you and wolfie are competing against each other to see how many negs you can dole out in a work day.
Have a great day.
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mark-stevens2 months ago
BUSH the first called that "The New World Order"
Those countries not involved in the Iraq war are paying less for oil!!
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Gransater2 months ago
In their defense, I don't think they realised what was coming. I've talked to quite a few, and most of them will privately admit a misstake was done.
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mesodude2 months ago
Even though I know those who must commute between the cities and the suburbs are suffering as well (and not just rural folks), I hate to admit it's hard to resist wanting to see those who put the current regime in power be punished. Since it seems that Bush and his co-conspirators will get to ride off into the sunset with moneybags tucked under each arm, it just doesn't seem right that he should also get off with a glowing, revisionist legacy written by the current MSM (much the same way Reagan is talked about today as if events like Iran contra and the AIDS epidemic were as significant as bad hair days).
What worries me is that, if the media can be trusted at all, the race between Obama and McCain is still fairly competitive. After the last 8 years, I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea that McCain could conceivably win. I'm praying that things are just not what they seem.
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baddad59Comment removed: User banned.
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canadianrancher572 months ago
The reallity of this story likely means little to people who have spent their lives in the larger centers, but for those of us who have lived outside of them it is sort of sad. Some of these communities have survived only because they were bedroom communities for people who worked in the cities. The depopulation of rural America and I include Canada in that has been going on for a fairly long time but this will likely be the final nail in the coffin for many. The one thing that very few people ever here about is the stories of successful small business people who when a town dies they are left with a house and a business which there is no buyer for. In some of the towns up here there are houses that are less than 20 years old with an asking price of under 30 thousand.
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mesodude2 months ago
Here in the DC area, we have some of the longest commutes in the country due to sprawl and I know this is really hitting those who work (but can't afford to live in the city) incredibly hard. Public transportation inside the beltway is decent to excellent but if you're not wealthy and you're commuting an hour or more by car each way (as is typical here), you're pretty much screwed.
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mesodude2 months ago
Soooo...Am I the only one who's been searching high and low for our friendly Propeller community "personal responsibility" advocates on this issue? You know the ones I'm talkin' about... The compassionate folks who've been clucking their teeth judgementally at the millions of their fellow Americans who are losing their homes (because they were "greedy" and not savvy enough to predict that the market would tank)? Remember the people who thought New Orleaneans (but, oddly, not so much others from the gulf region) who were "stupid" enough to live where there homes could be flooded?
Don't get me wrong, I'm heartsick over the fact that ALL Americans are being screwed by Bush, Cheney and the GOP. But I just think it's interesting that I haven't heard the usual finger-pointing (didn't "they" all know gas prices wouldn't be $1 per gallon? why did "they" choose to live in such far flung places?). What a world...
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nikkibabe2 months ago
Quote:
"In their defense, I don't think they realised what was coming. I've talked to quite a few, and most of them will privately admit a misstake was done."
Gee, then I really don't get it. Polls show Republican and Democrat Presidential candidate running neck and neck. Looks like people don't learn. Whether a Democrat will solve the problems or not is a different question. At least the country can get a new beginning.
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mesodude2 months ago
"Gee, then I really don't get it. Polls show Republican and Democrat Presidential candidate running neck and neck. Looks like people don't learn. Whether a Democrat will solve the problems or not is a different question. At least the country can get a new beginning."
--nikkibabe...Hi...Can I just call you nikki? Or do you prefer babe? Or not...nikkibabe is fine. No problem if, you prefer we keep it formal. It's not that many more keystrokes ...I don't mind and I should keep up my typing skills (I can be really lazy sometimes). No one likes a slacker...Actually I dated a slacker once...holy cow, she was hot. Bit of a social climber, though...And towards the end--she morphed into this bitter freeloading opportunistic shrew. Why do the hot ones always do that? Not that I think you would or anything. Or that you would date me...That wasn't a suggestion or come on...Just talking out lo...
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mesodude2 months ago
omg...that was embarrasing...I forgot to address your post, nikki. ;-) what I was gonna say is I'm not sure how much stock to put in the MSM right now. The neocons are still pretty much in control of that since Bush got in. That's why Iraq isn't discussed and it's why the economy died like a year ago and Bush has been allowed to give press conferences and say the equivalent of "the sun is shining but the American people can't see or feel it because their glasses are too dark and they're standing in the shade" (silly Americans) and no one challenges him. And plus, Dana Perino is purty and she looks smart in her crisp Dolce E Gabbana (sp?) blouse with the lil diamond elephant pin (that's cause she's a Republican, fyi) and her Nude lipstick...whoa...so hot. They shouldn't call it "nude" though...that's kinda salacious...They should call it something like au naturale...Oh wait...Maybe not that either...How about just "flesh"? Or not...
;-x
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Gransater2 months ago
Gee, then I really don't get it. Yeah, you and a lot of other people.
On one side we have a guy that is willing to continue the war for maybe a century without talking how we will finance it, or find soldiers for it, and on the other side of the fence is a guy that is a true demagog, but to many of the electorate with unknown accomplishments.
All too often what hear is what you want to hear, ie, true politics. Obama's slight lead, if you believe the news is due to many people wanting a breath of fresh air, hoping that he will not represent politics as usual.
Yeah, I agree with you. I don't get eigther. In a country with this many people, why is so hard to find someone who wants to fix the country, and not their own party.
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reunionpi2 months ago
The details of the personal automobiles of the five oil executives that testified before Congress with full registrations
www.webofdeception.com
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walden32 months ago
Haven't you heard?
"The American way of life is non-negotiable."
D. Cheney
With leadership and vision like that is it any wonder what we face?
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seo20202 months ago
I just think it is a crying shame that our soldiers have been giving their lives for years to protect the American way of life.
What is the American way? ... Smoke, mirrors, corruption and and a disguise of freedom! There is no freedom here... we all have a big thumb pushing us down in the dirt.
From the time we were children we have been taught to have pride in America and fight for our freedom... Now look at what we have to pass to our children!
Seems like it is time to move out of the country and denounce citizenship ... do it for yourself and your children.
Oops ... can't do that either or the government will simply take your money for trying to leave! Looks like we are moving the way of North Korea.
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Cityslicker2 months ago
Good story about the plight of American people who should not be faced with such hardship .
Gas could be $2 a gallon right now just as well as it is $4 , a report released two weeks ago suggest that Congress could pass a Bill that would make Commodity Trading less of a driving force for Oil prices , thus could lower the price of Oil to 60 to 70 dollars a barrel , what its real worth is right now , not the inflated greedy value it is .
But you see stories of the high price of gas and not a continuation of the Congress Bill story , what happened to Iraq is the war still going on ?
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Justice4All2 months ago
This problem can easily be solved if we start now. We send too much money to the Middle East and we can't risk our future on reliance of Middle East oil.
Oops.... That was what we saw as obvious in 1978. Looks like we chose the alternative of ignoring the problem and letting the next generation deal with the problem. But hey, we had cheap oil in the 80s and 90s and a strong economy because we were not burdened with concern for our future.
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kzimm632 months ago
I agree we should have started $30 years ago looking for alternatives. The only problem is that gas was very cheap through the 80's and 90's and the early 00's so there was no incentive. One good thing about gas being high is that it creates a big incentive to move towards alternative energy. The sad things as was mentioned is that if it were done 30 years ago we wouldn't be in this mess. I did find an intersting article on TIME / CNN. I especially found #1 interesting in that this could very well cause a lot of jobs to eventually come back to the USA because the cost of doing business overseas is moving up quickly. http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/arti...
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