[Peakoil] "It will be worse than the drought"

[Keith Thomas]

The Canberra Times (in its guise as the Sunday Times) has the headline 
today "It will be worse than the drought: How petrol prices are 
threatening life as we know it".

The articles under the headlines focus on the string of towns between 
Canberra and the holiday coast, predicting $1.70 litre by Christmas and 
printing quotes like:

"It's not just tourism operators - no matter what business you're in, 
everyone is suffering."

"People are going broke ... some businesses will go under."

The boosters are there, too, of course, and their words are worth 
studying.  The south coast mayor is clutching bravely at straws:

"This area has one of the highest rates of population growth of all 
[local government areas] in the country and we are anticipating much 
more growth in the next 15 years." The reporter interpolates: Mr Hede 
(the mayor) said that despite rising fuel prices, the region was 
attracting enormous interest from commercial developers including 
Woolworths and Coles. "I'm sure they've done their homework and have 
factored prices into business models". He hopes!

Others back here in Canberra are predicting the stay-at-homes here will 
boost consumer spending in Canberra, but the ACT Tourism chief 
executive was less optimistic: "We need other people to come here. More 
locals won't help our cause, it just circulates dollars around the ACT 
economy and doesn't attract interstate dollars."

It is my guess that almost everyone who has booked their holiday 
accommodation will still make their pilgrimage to the coast, but will 
spend more money on fuel and less on everything else, including driving 
around the coast, so that Canberra loses, the small towns along the way 
lose and the tourism-related businesses on the coast lose.  The oil 
companies will be the only gainers + the people who don't get involved 
in motor accidents with (a) less driving and (b) slower, fuel-saving 
driving .

The story is opening the lid on peak oil.

I'll letterbox today.
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Keith Thomas
www.evfit.com
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