Hi, I'm Denise, and this is your Civic Minute.
When gas prices spike, it's not just your commute that gets more expensive.
It's your groceries.
It's your heating bill.
Everything that moves by truck, train, or tractor costs more.
In other words, almost everything.
Take farming.
Wisconsin farmers run on diesel.
Their fertilizer is made from natural gas.
The propane that dries their grain comes through pipelines from hundreds of miles away.
When energy prices rise, farmers get squeezed from every direction, and those costs show
up at the grocery store.
But does it have to be this way?
You've already seen electric cars on the road.
Electric semi-trucks are starting to join them, and most freight locomotives already run
on electric drive trains, which means they're surprisingly easy to convert to battery power.
Every piece of the supply chain that moves off oil is one less place where a crisis in
the Middle East can reach into your wallet.
It's your Civic Minute.
Find more at civicmedia.us