Gas Prices Going to $10+

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2011/07/110714-oil-shockwave-war-game-simulation/

In the event of a massive, successful terrorist attack at a key facility in Saudi Arabia, gas prices might skyrocket to $10/gallon in the United States. This would be crippling macroeconomically, but for us Leafers.....it wouldn't really affect us, haha. (I felt a little bad at adding that "haha")

My question is, how would you handle that? And what do you think might happen? All the ICErs are driving around paying $10/gallon & we're paying 2 cents a mile. Do you think some people might get "jealous" :evil: or something & take their rage out on our cars? Or would most people be respectful & just ask questions and try to get their own Leafs as quickly as possible?

I wonder if any people might want to offer us cash to buy it. If someone offered you $40,000 cash for your USED Leaf, would you take it and go back to an ICE? (This is why I wish I bought two Leaves!)

Anyways, just wondering what y'all's opinion on this is. Hope everyone's having a great day!

If gas went to $10/gallon, driving would be the least of our worries. The impact would be severe, from food to almost everything else. We would be selling our cars because we would be unemployed. It's a worst case scenario that would leave little room for gloating.

I'd give rides to my neighbors.

HIOJim said:

If gas went to $10/gallon, driving would be the least of our worries. The impact would be severe, from food to almost everything else. We would be selling our cars because we would be unemployed. It's a worst case scenario that would leave little room for gloating.

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Exactly. The fact that we could still drive around easily & cheaply would be little consolation, since we wouldn't be able to escape the wide ranging effects on the economy.

HIOJim said:

If gas went to $10/gallon, driving would be the least of our worries. The impact would be severe, from food to almost everything else. We would be selling our cars because we would be unemployed. It's a worst case scenario that would leave little room for gloating.

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Seems like it's not a problem in Europe where gas prices are close to $10.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/02/26/Gas-shoots-to-967-a-gallon-in-Britain/UPI-78851298704546/

IBELEAF said:

HIOJim said:

If gas went to $10/gallon, driving would be the least of our worries. The impact would be severe, from food to almost everything else. We would be selling our cars because we would be unemployed. It's a worst case scenario that would leave little room for gloating.

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Seems like it's not a problem in Europe where gas prices are close to $10.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/02/26/Gas-shoots-to-967-a-gallon-in-Britain/UPI-78851298704546/

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Yes, but in Europe gas prices have ALWAYS been high due to taxation. It's ENCOURAGED by the governments there. I paid 70 euros to gas up my Audi A3 rental when I went to Germany back in February. Furthermore, this high cost of gas is highly mitigated by an extremely well-developed public transportation infrastructure, an infrastructure that simply does not exist in the majority of the United States.

In Europe, you can get almost ANYWHERE without using a car. In America, the opposite is true.

[soapbox]
I think that the American "Ostrich" has its head so far down in the sand, that ... it can only barely notice the whole world, 100's of countries, 1000's of spoken languages, and billions of other people ... also inhabit and share this small sphere.

Will humanoids EVER learn to get along?

It appears unlikely, which is VERY sad for "your" planet.

The higher the technology you depend upon, the more delicately balanced you become, the smaller the event it takes to upset the equilibrium, the farther you have to fall, and the longer and more difficult the recovery.
[/soapbox]

Soviet said:

In Europe, you can get almost ANYWHERE without using a car. In America, the opposite is true.

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Sure and in Europe people live mainly in the cities inside tiny apartments where in the US, which land is the size of two "Europes" put together, majority of people live in big houses in suburbs, essentially making impossible building public transportation that would reach everywhere, not to mention the high cost of it. So if gas prices suddenly go north and government doesn't step in, it will be an economic disaster for everyone. We'll probably be seeing gradual gas prices increase over the years and during that time manufacturers will be pumping out more and more efficient cars.

IBELEAF said:

So if gas prices suddenly go north and government doesn't step in

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Step in and do what?

If oil went to $10 a gallon then I think there would be a dramatic shift to using compressed natural gas much more quickly than is currently happening. CNG conversion is possible for the existing vehicle fleet and probably would be accomplished at a lower cost than $10/gal. But the impact on economies would result in many financial problems if there is too little time to adjust to the changes.

Nekota said:

If oil went to $10 a gallon then I think there would be a dramatic shift to using compressed natural gas much more quickly than is currently happening. CNG conversion is possible for the existing vehicle fleet and probably would be accomplished at a lower cost than $10/gal. But the impact on economies would result in many financial problems if there is too little time to adjust to the changes.

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Very true. America can easily get to a natural gas-powered economy within 2 decades, if not less. The United States has plenty of natural gas. It could be a stopgap before going to full renewable electricity as technology needs time to develop and whatnot.

Nekota said:

If oil went to $10 a gallon then I think there would be a dramatic shift to using compressed natural gas much more quickly than is currently happening. CNG conversion is possible for the existing vehicle fleet and probably would be accomplished at a lower cost than $10/gal. But the impact on economies would result in many financial problems if there is too little time to adjust to the changes.

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Time is key to any transition, and whilst we as a people may recover, the change period would be devastating to the population in many countries. We would also likely see currency collapses in some markets.

Another problem is that it takes energy to transform from one source (oil) to another (CNG) and that energy would be more expensive (3x) than before so change would be expensive.

And i too would offer rides to my neighbors - the ones with assault rifles in their closets.

bdgotoh said:

IBELEAF said:

So if gas prices suddenly go north and government doesn't step in

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Step in and do what?

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Instant gov imposed rationing.. every owner of a registered vehicle would receive gas coupons allowing them to buy gas at a certain price subsidized cost. Currently the US produces enough oil for about 4 gallons per week for such a ration.. priority would always go to food transportation and security.

You could probably find all the gas you want at $10 a gallon, plus a bit cheaper for black market gas coupons. I believe the gas ration during WWII was around 4 gallons a week also.

Herm said:

You could probably find all the gas you want at $10 a gallon, plus a bit cheaper for black market gas coupons. I believe the gas ration during WWII was around 4 gallons a week also.

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There were also plans by Nixon to ration gas during the 71 oil crisis - but it never went into action.

I think the most likely result of Peak Oil in gas rationing.

Soviet said:

Very true. America can easily get to a natural gas-powered economy within 2 decades, if not less. The United States has plenty of natural gas. It could be a stopgap before going to full renewable electricity as technology needs time to develop and whatnot.

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The tech to make liquid fuels from coal and NG has been around for a long time, CTL is practical with oil at $45 a barrel but the enormous capital cost to build a large number (probably 80 to supply half of our fuel needs) of such refineries would be Federal level spending .. and more important Fed level eminent domain to get rid of NIMBYs.

Here is an example from China:

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2004/06/major_coaltoliq.html

Herm said:

Currently the US produces enough oil for about 4 gallons per week for such a ration.. priority would always go to food transportation and security.

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Not to pick on Herm, but comments like this always baffle me. The US doesn't produce any oil. Multinational corporations lease drilling sites and pay royalties, but essentially own the oil. In fact, British Petroleum is the largest producer of oil in the US. Would make for an interesting situation between the US and UK if we tried to exercise imminent domain over BP in the Gulf of Mexico...

sproqitman said:

Not to pick on Herm, but comments like this always baffle me. The US doesn't produce any oil.

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Its a good point you make, but never stand in between a politician and his voters..

The recovering U.S. economy would re-implode if gas prices swing back to even $5.00/Gallon. As stated previously (and unfortunately), oil reaches into all aspects of the American economy and a double dip would become a sure thing. Unemployement would spike higher and mitigate gas actually reaching $10.00/gallon... but having no job/money would sure make $5.00 seem like $10.00+ gas!

So

Unless you are the top 1% of U.S. wealth, then we are ALL in this economy together! You might have a little fun with gasoline price "I told you so's", but that would be in line at the unemployement office.

Herm said:

sproqitman said:

Not to pick on Herm, but comments like this always baffle me. The US doesn't produce any oil.

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Its a good point you make, but never stand in between a politician and his voters..

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Yes - If the price does go to $10 next week, you can be assured something will be done.

Afterall "free market" Bush bailed out a lot of banks.

I agree that in the short term, a huge spike in oil prices would certainly hurt the US economy, but in the long term, we could arguable be better off.

As transportation costs rise, it becomes less and less economical to ship goods oversees, meaning companies would start opening up more regional manufacturing. That could be lots of jobs coming back home. If would also diminish the role of multi-national cooperation's and shift it to smaller more local companies.

The big argument in my mind is that someday most of our oil is going to be gone...and whoever did not prepare is going to be in a world of hurt. Right now the US is certainly not prepared, but an event that pushed gas to $10 would be a painful but productive kick in the pants.