Transportation
How Cheap Gas Complicates Long-Term Urban Planning
Drivers get a windfall now, but cities face a bumpy future.
Chances are you’ve heard something about oil prices recently. They’ve been dropping like a stone for months but reached harrowing lows in the first weeks of 2016.
The benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil prices sank to nearly $26 a barrel on Wednesday; for comparison, back in 2014, when oil was at $100 a barrel, the notion that it could drop below $75 was hard for experts to fathom. Today’s sub-$30 prices haven’t been seen since May 2003. What’s scary is that no particular crisis precipitated the current decline, just the collective action of oil producers trying to maintain revenue by pumping out more oil than the world needed. With so many responsible parties, who’s supposed to fix the situation?