Don't miss George Will on the feckless Nancy Pelosi making an assault on reason when it comes to gas prices. Isn't this typical? Government helps to create a problem through its own policies and then must create more policy to make up for those problems. Also see this Star-Tribune piece on how some are pleased with higher gas prices, including environmentalists.
For Jim Erkel, land use and transportation director for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, the rising cost of tanking up could ultimately change the direction of community growth. At some point the prices will start to dampen enthusiasm for driving, Erkel said. Fewer car trips mean less air pollution and may discourage people from chewing up green space by moving ever farther from the metro core, he said.
Dobrila Stancevic, 52, recently moved from Eagan to Minneapolis so she wouldn't have to drive as much. For the past two weeks, she has ridden a bicycle to her substitute teaching jobs in Mendota Heights, and has tried to persuade many of her colleagues to do the same, for the sake of fitness, the environment and other reasons.
As far as rising gas prices, Stancevic said, "To be honest with you, I hope they keep going up, because I think people are driving too much."
Many on the environmental left, including Al Gore, used to call for higher taxes on gas to dissuade people from driving and persuade them to use mass transit. It's nice to hear some of them saying so publicly, while their leaders demagogue the issue.
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