Reply #16: I'm no expert. But, I don't think gasoline will reach $8 per gal.

[ladjf]

Why? Because the parallel rise in diesel fuel cost for trucking and the airlines would put them out
of business. That is not acceptable to anyone including the oil cartels.

The threat of totally wrecking the U.S. economy simply for short term profit would cause those who control the price of oil to bring the prices back down to a barely sustainable level.

As militant as the U.S. already is, there is no doubt that the American Govt. would not hesitate to
"nationalize" middle East oil in any manner necessary to make it happen. Such a situation would please the right-winger, Republicans very much. They would feel justified in invading whoever they thought had enough oil.

Short of military action, the U.S. Govt. could decide to subsidize the airline and trucking with rebates on fuel. That could work for short term.

The real answer is to start an all out crash program to develop adequate supplies of energy from alternate sources. If we could replace as much as 15 to 20% of the oil demand the oil prices would plummet, the monopoly would have been broken, problem solved.

Wind technology is already on a cost par with coal fired generation. T.B.Pickens is investing 2 billion in will become the worlds largest wind farm. He's not doing that for his health. He is a money making machine and an oilman to boot.

Geothermal sources are rich with possibilities and are already in use in many parts of the world.

Solar generation is currently more expensive than conventional methods , but not that far off. Solar prices are dropping steadily.

Tidal and wave generation initiatives are happening worldwide.

There are plans to harness the current power of the Gulf Stream off the coast of Florida.