Three dollar a gallon is probably here to stay.

I remember the good old days. Even after the oil embargo of the 1970s, I used to fill up the tank of my 1968 Volkswagen Beetle with $3.00.  What does $3.00 a gallon gas mean? For one, it means I will have a lot fewer people ask me why I ride the city buds to work most days. It means I will be biking to work a lot more than I used to. And it also means that more people will think I am a nut when I take my 1970 Chevy Impala Convertible out for a spin. I think I get about 5 miles to the gallon.

It also means that the big energy producers will be creating enough revenue to shift their investments into clean and green power sources. It means the cost of doing so will start to “pencil out” for investors. It means consumers will flock to clean and green technology where it will save them a nickel or two.

We could be at a major threshold in our economy. This could be the birth of a whole new system based on solar, wind, geo-thermal, hydrogen and other new energy sources. We have seen these shifts before. Steam power, the internal combustion engine, and jet engines all changed our systems profoundly. On the other hand, it could mean we are just going to suffer with higher and higher costs of transportation, heating, cooling and construction while the planet continues to get dirtier and dirtier.

As far as our day to day livelihood goes, those of us in the property management world will find that location will become more important than ever.  People will be less willing to travel distances on a regular basis. And we are going to have to find new and interesting ways to get people to travel to us. It might mean we experience longer lengths of stay as the cost of moving out of our properties will rise to the point where people will need a really good reason to move.

In the mean time, I am going to get my bicycle tuned up and go buy the deep discount transit card at the bus station. I guess I’ll be leaving my Impala in my storage unit a lot more than I’d like.

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