Unless you hang out in the smoke-filled board rooms of Exxon-Mobile or British Petroleum, you probably won't be recognizing the 100th anniversary of the discovery of oil in Persia later this month.
Dramatic events in a remote Persian wilderness exactly a hundred years ago heralded the beginning of a new era in the Middle East. A wealthy British entrepreneur, William Knox D’Arcy (1849-1917), had secured a concession to prospect for oil in the country in 1901. After several years of exhausting andsy seemingly fruitless work, a drilling team led by a maverick British explorer, George Reynolds (1852-1925) was about to strike gold. During the early hours of May 26th, 1908, a short distance from an ancient settlement known as Masjid-i Suleiman, in south-western Persia, the ground suddenly started to rumble and, as men shouted with excitement and fear, a gushing, stinking black torrent spurted high into the air.
D'Arcy and Reynolds probably never dreamt that their black gold would trade for around $122 per barrel as it is today. This is no doubt part of the reason that some folks around Madison are finding that prices shot up overnight by $0.14 at some gas stations. While the Monona Terrace parking ramp fills up every morning with cars occupied by only the driver, more and more people are taking advantage of the state's Rideshare program. The Wisconsin DOT is reporting that "The month of April has seen a nearly 50% increase in Rideshare registrants over the month of March achieving an 80% match rate".
In related news, The Cap Times notes today that Milwaukee's Mitchell International Airport saw a record-setting 745,893 passengers in March. What the city's progressive paper didn't say today was that Amtrak's Hiawatha line, which runs between Milwaukee and Chicago, set a ridership record in March. 62,399 passengers rode the rails in March, 30% more than the same month last year. Both Mitchell and the Hiawatha line are serving ever more passengers.
Fuel prices continue to increase which has prompted airlines to reduce domestic flights in favor of the more profitable international variety. This comes amidst calls for the Midwest to consider itself a regional economy and for states and groups to band together. The Wisconsin Technology Council has identified the "I-Q Corridor", the area that runs from Chicago to Minneapolis and includes Madison & Milwaukee and experts are telling us that, if the Upper Midwest is compete in a global economy, then Cheeseheads are going to have to band together with FIBs and Mudducks. And, with rising fuel prices, fewer domestic flights, and more congested highways, high-speed rail can become a viable alternative.
Fred Risser was recently appointed to the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission. Risser is a late comer as Wisconsin joined the MIPRC in only March of this year. The Feds apparently only throw scraps to rail but let's hope Risser hits the ground running and that the MIPRC can grab some of them.
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