Fuel & Louisville's Economy

Cheap, Plentiful Fuel

Think Urban Planning

Our local economy developed during a period of cheap*, plentiful fuel. As a result, our local economy is heavily invested in fuel-intensive industries such as air freight, surface logistics/distribution, and the auto industry. Future costs and restrictions placed on current fuel sources will impact these industries. Louisville needs to prepare for that day by diversifying our economy, our energy sources and our transportation modes.

The fact that none of the fuel that drives our current economy is produced locally also means that dollars spent buying that fuel leave our local economy. The 27 million miles that Metro Louisville drives daily translates into a huge, daily revenue drain. That fact should motivate Louisville not only to develop alternate transportation modes and alternate local energy sources, but also to launch major energy conservation programs.

* It has been successfully argued that while our fuel has not cost much at the pump or electric meter, it has not really been cheap. There are huge indirect costs that we pay now, will pay soon, or will pass off to future generations. Those costs, tangible and intangible, include:

- coal mining's destruction of our uniquely diverse and irreplaceable mountains and streams
- increased health costs/risks from the mining and/or burning of fossil fuels via particulates/toxins in our air, soil, and water
- fossil fuel's alteration of climate
- the deployment of our military to 'protect our strategic interests'
- the resentment by other countries and future generations of our disproportionate energy consumption rates, etc.

In short, the TRUE cost of our fuel has not yet been paid. We should prepare now for when that bill comes due by transitioning away from an economy that is currently almost wholly dependent on extraction.