Fueling Rural Oregon

AIR DATE: Tuesday, July 8th 2008
None
Will rising fuel costs eventually force people out of rural areas?

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It's no secret that communities everywhere are feeling the pinch of rising gas prices, but rural areas face some unique challenges: a lack of public transportation, compounding fertilizer and fuel costs for farmers, and unavoidable long distance travel between home, work and basic services. These concerns are nothing to sneeze at considering Oregon's gas prices are the seventh highest in the nation and the majority of the land in the state is rural.

Will rising fuel costs eventually force people out of these small towns and cities? How do gas prices in rural Oregon affect the state as a whole? If you live in a rural area, what is your chief concern when it comes to the price of fuel?

GUESTS:

Photo credit: Flickmor / Flickr / Creative Commons

Tagged as: gas · rural-urban divide

Morning, gang~!

Abbie Stidham's not the only one moving fuel efficient products. I read in a Silverton paper that other two-wheel dealers are getting a bump,too.

Interesting to note: scooters and electric bikes can?t drive state highways. Could be a limiting factor.
April Baer —
It is interesting that we are talking about life in rural areas becoming unsustainable. In the long run life in cities may become harder to sustain. Having lived in rural areas all my life. I'm just changing the way I live a bit. We grow or harvest from the forest more of our food. We go to town once a month not once a week as we used to.

So when we do get to town we make it more valuable. We can save money on food because we grow or harvest it which offsets the cost of fuel. Much of the cost of living is cheaper in rural areas. Neighbors now produce our milk not shipped in at least for some of us.

I walk to work so I don't spend money on gas. I admit getting to some things require a long drive and is costly.

I also use a car getting 30mpg but have a diesel pickup getting 19mpg if I need to get a load. So I use them appropriately. This costs less because I can get cheaper insurance. So for me yet it is still much cheaper to live in rural Oregon vs Cities. Some of the methods of using long distances travel will just need to be eliminated we will have to live locally.

I think people just need to change the way the live to the way rural life used to be. Working with long commutes is not going to be viable in the future.

Thanks
taildragerdriver —
Yes! I grew up in rural Idaho, and while there was not an energy crisis at the time, we were dirt poor, so it was pretty much the same thing. We went to town once every few weeks, we walked everywhere or rode horses on our mountain to visit neighbors and relatives, with whom we traded goods and services, and cooperated in town trips.

Farmers and ranchers of yore got along without petroleum-powered vehicles; welcome to the new old west!
h.m.currey —
We live in Welches, and both my husband and I work in Portland. He's down on Airport way, I'm over on Johnson Creek Blvd. We were spending almost $800 in fuel a month; and as the price has gotten so high for gas, we've started carpooling; which means my having to get up even earlier, and having to stay in town a lot later. My trip is a bit longer, but we're saving a little from carpooling, but it's more stressful. I feel bad for our dogs who are alone all that time. We are doing what we have to in order to make ends meet. It's the price we're paying to live where we want to. Decent-paying jobs are not easy to find around Mt. Hood.
HerOdyssey —
Hello,

I grew up in Pendleton and although it isn't as rural as other places in Eastern Oregon we had schools in the Bend area in our athletic conference. I can't help but believe that it will cost the schools a lot more money for sports trips, or any activity that requires long bus trips. High gas prices will really hurt rural school districts, and I'm afraid that kids there will see cuts in available extra curricular activities.

-Russell
Portland
rustle —
In some places, it seems like one fillng station can make the difference in a community's survival. One post at USA Today says small towns without gas stations are facing serious trouble.
April Baer —
This show is so well-timed. My partner and I live in Portland, but he just got a job out in Wasco, about two hours away. The commute is so bad that we will be moving to Hood River, but until then, in order to save on $5-a-gallon ($65-a-tank) biodiesel and diesel, he must leave Monday morning and stay in a motel until Thursday night, when he can come home for the weekend. The terrible irony of it is that my partner's new job is on a windfarm, contributing to the wonderful revolution in clean, sustainable energy. Needless to say, he is somewhat troubled by his gas use.
Megan C. —
I grew up in Minnesota. The idea that rural folks in Oregon need SUV's and pickups to survive harsh winters is a bunch of garbage. True, Minnesotans drove an old beater car in the winter, but there was no need for everyone to drive a Suburban.
fatmidwesternwhiteguy —
I live 26 miles from Prineville. I have lived here since 1992 when gas was a consistent 89c per gallon. I don't make extra trips. When I leave town, if I forget anything, it's forgotten until next trip. That has been true since I moved here.
And, I live off the grid. So I use gas to generate power too.
How do I pencil in 431.9 per gallon? Cut backs. Next thing to go is my Sat TV.
This is not good for the local economy or national.
Upper Ridge —
I wonder if, in the long run, rural areas will actually benefit from higher transportation costs. Rural ranchers might be able to make a living if they no longer have to compete with international commodities. Or if local craftsmen don't have to compete with mass-produced goods from distant factories.
lori s —
There is an irony here in that rural Oregon tends to vote Conservative and since the 1970s Conservatives have sabotaged every attempt at alternative energy and higher fuel mileage that anyone has proposed. Their chickens have come home to roost.


But really, for well over a hundred years Big Oil has run the world and has made sure that everyone is addicted to Oil and prevented or stopped alternatives. Big Oil has been subsidized to the detriment of other energy.
Tom D Ford —
I live in an suburban community and ride my bike, bus, walk to services, but I work at a rural school that is literally inaccessable to me except by my car. The staff at our school is trying everything (commuting by horse) but especially car pooling to get to work. My husband and I are preparing to give up our home of the last 20 years in the community where we raised our family so we can relocate closer to our workplaces. This major impact on our personal lives is created by our need to be part of the solution.
lambheel —
How many of your elected reps want to answer the gas price problem? Enough to keep our guy Rob Manning busy running from event to event last week! Here's Rob's story on what some Oregon politicians propose to do about gas prices.

Any of these appeal to you?
April Baer —
The old drum "we just need to drill for more oil in the U.S.!" as a solution to our current pickle infuriates me. It will put off the problem until all these old conservative policymakers and voters die, but it will be just one more mess we've left for our children and their children.
h.m.currey —
And just now when we have to drastically cut back on burning all fossil fuels to save our life on this planet Bush is using the high gas prices to blackmail Americans into allowing Big Oil to drill in the wildlife refuges and very sensitive offshore areas. Conservatives still don't get it, they want to burn more when we absolutely need to burn less.

Sheesh!
Tom D Ford —
My idea would be to subsidize windmills to generate electricity to run home sized units for hydrogen splitting of water, store the hydrogen in home sized units and to run fuel cell cars and for home energy like heating, cooling, water heaters, etc.


Completely sustainable from beginning to end! And diversified and safe from any mass terrorist attacks on centralized types of energy like nukes, coal plants, or dams!


That would end foreign wars for Oil, and so cut the military budgets and make that dough available for healthcare, education, etc.

The military is the second largest consumer of Oil in the world, it is a dog chasing its own tail, fighting wars for Oil in order to fight more wars for Oil !?!?!?
Tom D Ford —
May I offer a perspective on sustainable living in rural Oregon from living in eastern Oregon for about 15 years. Rural eastern Oregonians have impressed me with lives rooted in the land and their knowledge of the land. Many hunt for winter meat, have large gardens and put up produce, harvest wood from downed wood on the National Forest and use it for winter heat source, and some live off the grid with solar power. Ranchers in Grant County use solar powered pumps for water for cattle. I know several teachers who live or have lived 50-60 miles from the school in which they teach. They live closer to the school during the week, and drive home for the weekend. A bus operates taking people from Grant County to do shopping and medical appointments in Bend. You'd think tourism with the rise in gas prices would be affected, but think about the Kam Wah Chung Museum in John Day which has seen a tripling in its visitorship from last year (when the museum was closed for renovations), with visitors making a special trip to John Day to see the Museum. There are long distances to cover in eastern Oregon and gas prices are having an impact, but the picture is not that simple and rural Eastern Oregonians have a history and knowledge of sustainable practices.
alpinesnow —
In parts of Rural Europe, the postal carrier is also public transportation. They drive a small van and at any stop you can jump on pay a small fair and ride with them as far as you like. I wonder if this is something that could be used in rural Oregon?
Dscott —
Just think of how much better off we would be now if we had addressed the long-run fossil fuel problems when we first experienced them in the 70's. Now, we have wasted about 30 years and the problem is worse. This time, let's forget about the painless solutions such as gas tax holidays and pretending additional domestic drilling will make a real difference. Let's keep the base price of gas up so we make correct decisions about what we drive, where we live, what jobs have futures, and what we can afford.
elliefay —
You're right but it was not "we", it was Conservatives that wasted 30 yrs and now god only knows how much money wasted.

Americans end up with smoke and the Arabs end up with all the money, that's Conservatism for you!
Tom D Ford —
I don't think it was only conservatives who lined up to buy monstrous SUV's because, after decades of getting by with regular cars, we suddenly needed a 4X4 to drive to Starbucks. Give me a break. When will liberals ever learn that WE have to solve our problems by US taking accountability. The days are ending when we can blame the big corporations or the gub'ment or the military industrial complex for our wasteful lifestyles and the resulting damage to the environment.
fatmidwesternwhiteguy —
Ha ha ha, good one!

Who do you think wrote the laws giving tax subsidies to business people for buying SUVs over a certain weight. We, the taxpayers, paid for businesses to buy and drive huge fuel hogs!

Tom D Ford —
One final note to anyone who was listening today -- the state of Oregon DOES indeed have an emergency plan, in case gasoline becomes extremely scarce, for pricing or supply reasons. The state Department of Energy is in the process of re-drafting that plan. If I can get some more details, I'll post them, pronto.
April Baer —

Comments are now closed.

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