To the editor:

There’s a new reality. This reality – peak oil production, higher and higher oil prices, and an urgent need to contain atmospheric CO2 – sheds new light on our local situation and issues.

James Kunstler, speaking in Salina, noted “the greatest amount of sheer liquid crude oil pumped was in May 2005. In July 2006 the total basic oil package, including natural gas condensates and other exotics, peaked at 85 million barrels a day. Now production is 1 million barrels less,” although oil prices are higher. Some people are cutting optional expenditures now to pay for gasoline.

Competition for oil will unsettle prices further, and drive prices upward. It’s foreseeable in five years many of us will be cutting other expenditures to pay higher prices for gasoline. Public transportation must take the place of thousands of cars now going daily east or west out of Lawrence. The current bus to Johnson County Community College and the Regents Center filled to standing room only, and a second bus was added. There is demand already.

We soon will need public transit linking Lawrence on regular schedules to Topeka and Kansas City areas. This public transit will free up some cash for spending in local businesses.

Mark Larson,

Lawrence