How would $6/gal gas or diesel change the lives of folks living in Montana? With an area slightly smaller than Japan and a population of just under one million, we are rather dispersed; it’s not a great place for mass transit. We are totally dependent on cars, pickups, and SUVs. Further, our housing locations were established when fuel was much cheaper than now. In 1970 or 2000, few considered the price of gas when selecting their home site. This is now a stranded cost. While in principle one could move a doublewide closer to town, this is rarely a viable option. What then?

I have a clue. Ramona and I recently drove around much of Iceland, some 1200 miles. This is approximately the distance from Bozeman to Billings to Wolf Point to Havre to Missoula and back to Bozeman.

Iceland is roughly one-third the size of Montana and has just under one-third our population. Its capital, Reykjavik, is a bit bigger than Billings. Reykjavik is growing rapidly as people desert the rural areas and farms increase in size. No other city is as large as Bozeman. Were it in Iceland, Belgrade would be a major metro area. In demographic terms, it’s much like Montana: a rural society in transition.

Unlike Montana, fuel has always been expensive in Iceland. How, then, do people cope? Is there mass transit? Do folks drive subcompacts? Bike? Rollerblade to work and school?

Here’s the good news: none of the above. In a place that resembles ours, folks drive machines much like ours. One can’t safely pull a horse trailer, boat, or a trailer with four-wheelers behind a Geo Metro. So they don’t.

The parking lot of a spa in a small, remote Icelandic town isn’t exactly like that of Bozeman’s Ridge -- but the difference isn’t huge. People have made marginal adjustments to traditionally high fuel prices. And so will we.

F 250s, Dodge Rams, and Suburbans are as rare in Iceland as Hummers in Missoula. Instead of 5-, 6-, and 7-liter engines being the norm, 2.6 and 3.2’s are most common; most vehicles are the size of Subaru Foresters and Isuzu Troopers. Unless you’re pulling a four-horse trailer up the Livingston or Butte Pass, this isn’t a problem.

For many years I drove a 524 BMWtd and it would comfortably cruise all day at 90 or 100 mph with a 2.4-liter engine. (It was legal back then.) My 300-horsepower M5 has only a 3.7-liter engine and it’s computer-governed to a mere 140 mph -- that’s miles per hour not kilometers. The displacement of Ramona’s old 635 Beemer is only 3.5 liters and it will easily do 120. All these engines were developed a generation ago in Germany, a country where gas has long been expensive.

Here’s the guiding principle: people economize on scarce -- not plentiful -- resources. And American fuel was cheap indeed when Detroit developed our iron. Hence, a Suburban is doing quite well if it beats 17 mpg. That’s what one should expect from a machine weighing nearly three tons (5,480 pounds).

Although we have a huge inventory of suddenly inappropriate vehicles, we too will adjust. One of my friends recently bought a new VW turbo diesel Jetta. Alas, she complained, on a trip to Salt lake it got only 38 mpg instead of the 50 she expected -- but she drove at 85. (Power required to overcome air resistance increases with the cube of the speed. Ask any serious cyclist.)

In terms of conservation, are the Icelandic people more virtuous than Americans? Probably not. By our standards, many squander electricity, heat, and water. And why not, they’re wallowing in these resources. In contrast, Iceland has no native timber nor oil (aside from whale oil, but that’s another issue). With these they are naturally frugal.

Around 1900, tens of thousands of Icelanders moved to North Dakota. What do they drive? Just what we do. After time for adjustment, what will they drive if gas and diesel hit $6 per gallon? Just what their kin in Iceland do now. That’s the way the world works.