--- title: The Downside to Cheap Gas description: The downside to cheap gas, saving coal country with code, paying teachers in cheap housing and more. canonical: https://time.com/4120302/cheap-gas-downside/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-19T17:01:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:00:54.028Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Downside to Cheap Gas og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4120302/cheap-gas-downside/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Downside to Cheap Gas twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The Downside to Cheap Gas by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Nov 19, 2015 5:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Nov 19, 2015 5:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**There’s a downside to cheap gas.**](http://cityobservatory.org/the-high-price-of-cheap-gas/) By Joe Cortright in City Observatory **2\.** [**Can we teach coal miners to code?**](https://medium.com/backchannel/canary-in-the-code-mine-903884eca853#.xkewt9j9e) By Lauren Smiley in Backchannel **3\.** [**Teachers are swapping better pay for subsidized housing.**](http://prospect.org/article/can-affordable-housing-help-retain-teachers) By Rachel M. Cohen in the American Prospect **4\.** [**Can we afford to keep paying for college athletics?**](http://projects.huffingtonpost.com/projects/ncaa/sports-at-any-cost) By Brad Wolverton, Ben Hallman, Shane Shifflett, and Sandhya Kambhampati in the Huffington Post **5\.** [**Is Anonymous vs. ISIS the first true cyberwar?**](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charles-m-firestone/anonymous-vs-isis-netpoli%5Fb%5F8593176.html) By Charlie Firestone in the World Post  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4120302/cheap-gas-downside/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4120302/cheap-gas-downside/"},"headline":"The Downside to Cheap Gas","datePublished":"2015-11-19T17:01:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:54.028Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4120302/cheap-gas-downside/","keywords":["Innovation","climate","coal","housing","ISIS","College football","Gas prices"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4120302/cheap-gas-downside/","name":"The Downside to Cheap Gas"}}]}] ```