Fresh Loaf

In the new book $20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better, Christopher Steiner predicts that the roller coaster ride of petrol prices will eventually become one long, cash-gobbling incline. (If this premise sounds eerily familiar, then you might have listened to Marketplace last night. Steiner was a guest.)

The change will be painful, he says. Big-box stores that rely on inexpensive goods shipped from afar will lose their grip on the marketplace. Residents will return to live in dense cities, turning the suburbs into what the cities were during white flight. Regional air travel? Too expensive and inefficient. Interstates will…well, who knows. I remember hearing something like “will become overgrown with weeds,” but I think that’s already happening.

But growing pains and another economic collapse aside, the shift won’t be all that bad. Fuel prices will become so unbearable, Steiner writes, that we’ll walk and bike more, plan more dense communities, and know our neighbors. We’ll be healthier and happier and live in a cleaner environment.

Forbes Magazine has adapted some chapters of the book. After the jump, some excerpts I noticed about Atlanta.

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Gov. Sonny Perdue wrapped his arms around each and every one of us today and activated a law that penalizes retailers who gouge consumers on the price of gas and other products.

“The threat of Hurricane Ike has disrupted the production of distribution of gasoline, which will have an effect on prices,” said Perdue. “However, we expect the prices that Georgians pay at the pump to be in line with the prices retailers are paying. We will not tolerate retailers taking advantage of Georgians during a time of emergency.”

If you suspect a retailer of price gouging, call the Governor’s Office of Consumer Affairs at (404) 651-8600 or (800) 869-1123.

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Sounds strange, but bear with me.

J.C. Bell, an agricultural researcher who lives in Tifton, recently made Internet headlines as the mysterious man who holds the answers to the nation’s energy problems. He didn’t shoot a hole in the ground and up came a’bubblin’ crude. He stood downwind from a gassy cow and smelled opportunity.

“Let me tell you, cows have a great ability to make gas,” Bell says during a phone interview.

The key to the cow’s talent, he says, is a bacteria living in its body that produces hydrocarbon. When it interacts with waste, it produces gas. After four years of under-the-radar research, Bell says he’s identified the bacteria and now plans to genetically modify and produce it on a mass scale, and in turn use it to convert waste into fuel. Bell’s operation is building several pilot plants and production facilities capable of pumping our 500-1,000 barrels per day from each.

He says the result, which he hopes to see by October next year, wouldn’t require a change in the energy infrastructure. Unlike electric cars, which would necessitate a sweeping retrofit of charging stations and a reexamination of the power grid, Bell claims his idea could be pumped directly into your gas tank. It wouldn’t replace our need for fossil fuels, he says, but it would ease our dependence on them. (more…)

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