Have you heard the expression “peak oil”? It’s being heard more and more these days as the price of gas goes skyward. There are Web sites dedicated to the mathematical equations that predict when the Earth will run out of oil, and there are those who think this is a sign of the apocalypse … for roads. My take is that running out of oil may not be the worst thing that ever happens. It may get some of the companies that have been sitting on viable alternative fuels to finally get them off the shelves and put them out there for the public. Hydrogen, methane and compressed natural gas have all proven worthy, though they have been “too expensive” to produce or to get into vehicles. There are probably other things out there that we haven’t even heard of yet that could be used to power vehicles. What did “The Jetsons” use? The world will not grind to a halt if we run out of petroleum. In fact, that could be the best thing that ever happened to us. Maybe this nation could lead the way if grain-based fuels became more viable and much of our land was returned to an agrarian use. Think about how clean our air will be once we no longer have fossil fuels to burn. Peak oil can either mean the beginning of the end or a new beginning altogether. Just a thought.
Questions about Metro extending to BWI
We told you several months ago about the behind-the-scenes efforts to get Metro to connect to BWI and a few days ago that other newspaper in town decided to do a story about it, too. That resulted in this e-mail from Stephen: “Why would they do that? MARC already connects BWI, Union Station and New Carrollton. Are there any plans for extending Metro out to Anne Arundel County? MARC does connect Anne Arundel to D.C., but only for the North County. I live in ‘South County’ and Metro is more convenient than the MARC right now. I used to ride the express bus from Annapolis to downtown DC, but the buses get stuck in traffic just like everyone else. The express bus takes longer than my present commute by at least 15 minutes each way. I currently drive from Edgewater to Largo Town Center and catch the Metro there.”
The reason these airports are such a major focus is because they are huge economic engines for the regions in which they are located. Their success is key to a lot of the planning thought that goes on. The battle between Dulles and BWI has always been rather genteel but it seems as if that may come to an end. The push for rail to BWI is as much a reaction to the Dulles rail project as it is to anything else.
The big difference in all of this is that the expected boom near BWI is going to be caused by the feds’ base reconfigurations and not by some high-tech firm that bought some cheap land out by an airport.
Questions, comments, random musings? Write to [email protected].
