“If the price is high enough, even roosters will lay eggs,” Dr Brian Fisher said in 2006, implying that, when the price of a commodity becomes high enough, alternative sources of supply will always come to the fore. However, an article by Elliot Fishman, the director of the Institute for Sensible Transport, in yesterday’s edition of The Age argues that normal economics don’t apply to the price of petrol. Current prices might seem high, but because of the diminishing supplies of oil, prices are just going to keep going up.

Fishman argues that the Australian government can’t do anything about the price of petrol, but it can do something about the cost. “Cost is the amount people actually spend… The cost can be kept to a minimum by reducing the need for oil-consuming behaviours, primarily driving.” This can be done by providing railway services to suburbs which are currently car-dependent, and improving the cycling infrastructure. Otherwise we could ultimately see “the abandonment of oil-dependent suburbs”.

What would the future look like for the church in a city where extreme oil prices prevailed? It is conceivable that oil prices could rise so high that it would no longer be affordable to live in an area which could only be reached by petrol-driven vehicles. Property prices would plummet, so it would be easy to purchase plenty of land to build a church; however, no-one would be able to afford to come…

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