cadyne

Check out the hybrids that are out now. The Honda Insight and Toyota Prius have been out several years and will get you 50 or 60 miles per gallon.

Not only is it cheaper - you do not have to stop for gas as often on long trips. Or tank up.

I hate to say that gas prices are going to continue to come up and we probably will not see them dip much below today's prices in the future.

But oil seems to be in short supply and gas scarcer, thanks to an unbelievable array of bad luck with nature, machinery, and human behavior in the last 3 months.

That's the now/soon story. Long term: I just read that based on the aged projections of an economist with an uncanny knack for being right, we may have used just over 50% of the oil in the ground in the last hundred years.

So we burn half in a century and we have half left, say. But we have more cars in the US, Europe, and middle east now than we did in the first half of last century. Plus, expect a lot more drivers to come on the roads in just the next decade. India and China are trying to rapidly mint a middle class.

Those two countries also have 3 billion people living in them - that's half the planet's population! In the US, there are only 300 million people - which is one tenth of their number.

Assuming the same ratio of people in those 2 countries buy cars as those in this country, mucho gas will be going up in smoke for their commuting and vacations+errands.

I think road tar is made from some stuff left over from the refining process. Demand for more roads across China might spike demand for more of that stuff.

Plus, plastics are petroleum based too - and middle class and tech products and cars need lots of plastic.

Not to mention the amount of energy required to spin up and keep cranking similar degree of industry in those countries as we see in the US, Germany, and such.

If that economist was right, the gas would quickly run out - in far less than another century. Even if he wasn't, oil that is "down in the ground" does no good if we can't both find it and get it up and refined without stopping.

Anyway, all these things point to tigher supply, sharper demand, and higher prices.

Think hybrid the next time you buy a car. You save money every time you drive it.

Actually a few states have actually stopped the price gouging by putting price caps on gas, especially since crude oil is back where it should be and it just the Corporate giants and Bush who owms alot of stock in a particular oil company. are just trying to get their 300 percent profit. Can't wait to hang out. peace