Any pros of high oil prices?

Question

Any pros of high oil prices?

Answer 1

Expensive energy is a powerful medicine. It may hurt when taken, but it brings long-term cures for a host of ills. It compels companies and people to put fewer miles on the car, ditch the SUV, or install more efficient heating, as Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor did: The hospital saves $1 million annually with a system it installed two years ago.

Higher costs are beginning to nudge America away from its traditional traffic-congested suburban sprawl to denser, less car-dependent communities.

These changes are saving lives—fewer traffic deaths—and improving health as people get out of their cars. A study from Washington University in St. Louis suggests that 8% of the rise in obesity since the 1980s was due to low gas prices, which led to less walking and biking and more restaurant meals.

High energy prices also water the flowers of innovation, making investments in alternatives pay off and juicing the search for more oil. Military-funded researchers have made jet fuel from plants. Toyota (TM) and General Motors (GM) are testing plug-in hybrid cars that can run 40 miles on electricity alone. Companies are building vast expanses of mirrors in the desert to make steam, and thus electricity, from the sun. There are new systems to control power consumption by homes and businesses from afar and programs to insulate inner-city houses, providing energy savings—and jobs.

Answer 2

Less traffic on the freeways = less traffic jams = my commute was cut in half this summer!

Answer 3

None here.

Answer 4

Well, I'm Mexican and from our economic point of view high oil prices is the best thing that can happen to us, as it keeps the country's economy going (extraction costs remain the same when oil prices boom, so we get a bigger profit). Same thing for Venezuela, Russia, Canada and the Arab Countries.

Edit: Before you think of it, I do care for the environment. This is NOT about making money for the fat cats (although in part it is, which is not a pro of high oil prices), it's about countries that could not possibly survive if oil prices were very low, such as Mexico and Venezuela, meaning those prices are feeding and giving shelter to millions of people. That, at least to me, is a pro of high oil prices.