The price of gasoline may finally be changing the way many people commute and communicate but the picture isn’t all rosy. Anecdotal evidence says teleworkers are growing rapidly as a direct result of the cost of driving. For example, According to Leichtman Research Group, the nineteen largest cable and telephone providers in the US, representing about 94% of the market, acquired over 2.9 million net additional high-speed Internet subscribers in the first quarter of 2007. The top broadband providers now account for 56.2 million subscribers, with cable companies having over 30.7 million broadband subscribers, and telephone companies having over 25.4 million subscribers. That in part can be directly to more employees taking advantage of telework programs, experts say. Jack Nilles, the Father of Telecommuting told Network World this week that he expects teleworkers to increase about 10% annually going forward due in large part to the oil situation as well as the increasing availability of high-speed Internet access. Lawmakers too are recognizing the changes. A pair of senators recently introduced legislation that would pump up federal support for telework, enabling more government employees to work from home. The Telework Enhancement Act of 2007, S. 1000, introduced by Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Ala., and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., if passed would make a number of changes in federal telework law, including a requirement that all federal employees be eligible to telework unless shown otherwise by their employer. Today, the law says the opposite: that all employees are ineligible unless the federal agency where they work shows that telework is a viable option. Couple the above facts with a report in USA Today that says the average American motorist is driving substantially fewer miles for the first time in 26 years because of high gas prices and demographic shifts, according to the newspaper’s analysis of federal highway data. The growth in miles driven has leveled off dramatically in the past 18 months after 25 years of steady climbs despite the addition of more than 1 million drivers to the nation's streets and highways since 2005. Miles driven in February declined 1.9% from February 2006 before rebounding slightly for a 0.3% year-over-year gain in March, data from the Federal Highway Administration show. That's in sharp contrast to the average annual growth rate of 2.7% recorded from 1980 through 2005, the article states. The paper surveyed 1,010 people across the country and found that 10% had changed jobs to shorten their commute. The paper also found that more people took public transit last year than at any time in 49 years.While these changes are welcome in many cases, the underlying reason, gasoline prices that threaten to hit $4 per gallon by end of summer, is political and economic quagmire. Just this week the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust task force opened the first of a number of hearings on the oil industry, with its chairman noting that gasoline prices have soared well above $3 a gallon and asking, "How did we get into this mess?" While oil companies blame soaring gasoline prices on unexpected refinery shutdowns, Congress is questioning whether industry mergers and investment decisions have erased a supply cushion, the Associated Press reported this week. "Oil companies today are enjoying record profits, and while they could use those profits to invest in more production capacity, instead they use the money to buy back shares in the markets," said Rep. John Conyers Jr., a Michigan Democrat and the committee's chairman. Exxon Mobil and Chevron, the nation's largest oil companies, earned a combined $14 billion in the first quarter, the AP report said.
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