$20 Per Gallon

Freakonomics interviews Chris Steiner, author of $20 Per Gallon. He has some interesting, if controversial, predictions:

Remember when everybody fell all over themselves trying to land a gig at an internet company during the late 1990’s? Those jobs were instant tickets to riches, or so we thought. When gasoline reaches $8 per gallon, energy-related startups will form the new craze. That’s where the hot jobs will be. IPO’s, wild sums of venture money, 23-year-old C.E.O.s all of it will be resurrected from that movie called 1999. Or perhaps the market will recall the mistakes we made in the past and dial back its reaction … or perhaps not.

Reihan loved the book. $20 a gallon is about the only thing that could unleash the genius of the market in energy innovation. And nothing else will really do anything to abate climate change. Bring it on!