The USA seems addicted to cheap fuel. That addiction needs to end sometime, and if you collectively cry about prices raising to less than the levels the rest of the world deals with just fine it doesn’t give much hope for the future.
The USA seems addicted to cheap fuel. That addiction needs to end sometime, and if you collectively cry about prices raising to less than the levels the rest of the world deals with just fine it doesn’t give much hope for the future.
Cheap fuel means cheap transportation, which means cheaper goods and greater purchase power across the entire economy. This is especially the case in countries like the USA where population density is so low. In the EU we can accomplish corresponding purchase power with more expensive fuel prices because of population density (more than 3x more people per km than the US).
I don't think it is at all reasonable for the USA to just give up on cheap fuel because our situation can allow for more expensive fuel.
If there is a rural bias, the solution would be to subsidize the rural areas to buy their votes. The solution to a problem of the commons, and the distribution of benefits, are separable (Coase Theorem).