What would happen if fuel were 20$ per gallon?

[Eeezee]

1) Everyone would start buying (or would have already bought) hybrids and alternative fuel vehicles. In fact, why use super-expensive gasoline when you can use vegetable oil in a diesel with moderate mileage?

2) Gas power plants would be shut down.

3) The cost of all products that require shipping would go up. This would be across the board. Companies would never simply bite the cost of replacing their older trucks or the cost of gas, that cost would be passed onto the consumer one way or another.

4) The Middle East would be more important than ever to America. While we can switch to alternatives for vehicles and various other things, we can not eliminate our oil consumption for product manufacturing. Medical supplies, tires, any product made with oil would go up drastically in price.

Also, Heineken sucks. :guinness;

 

[TXHokie]

It'd be cheaper to hire someone to pull me to work in a rickshaw.

 

[Howard]

Sugar cane and biodiesel-producing algae would be grown as fast as possibly, I would hope.

 

[KLin]

We'd see a 2nd great depression.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

After a series of carpet bombings of every major city in Iraq it would be annexed as the 51st state.

 

[ponyo]

I would drive more as people drove less.

 

[Amplifier]

i'd still drive my H2 around

 

[intogamer]

Originally posted by: MX2times

:laugh:

 

[Philippine Mango]

It'd be bad but it's not like fuel was cheap back in the 1900 or the1890s, it was that expensive (at least equivalent) when oil was first starting to come around.

 

[Pacfanweb]

The Middle East would then become the 51st state of the USA.

 

[SludgeFactory]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
Sales of bikes, roller-blades, etc, would sell very well. My physical shape would vastly improve, and its already pretty good, as I would run or bike to work every day.

heh, my first thought at seeing this thread was that our obesity problem would make a dramatic improvement.

The concept of the suburb would take a pretty big hit over time, but it's not like they'd disappear. Short term you'd see a lot of van pooling and bussing, with a variety of large and small businesses popping up to offer those services. The more entrepreneurial SUV owners out there might actually hang onto their vehicles. It would be odd to see all the single-occupant Suburbans suddenly loaded to the gills with paying customers every morning.

 

[bwatson283]

$300 a week for me! Damn the SUV!

 

[everman]

The streets would look like many SE asain nations with all of the little motorcycles and bikes.

 

[SZLiao214]

Bike!

 

[Zee]

i would sleep at my job and only commute like once every month. duh

 

[TrueBlueLS]

I'd quit my job, sell my car, and find a new job within walking distance of my house.

 

[BigToque]

Well, it's already around $7/gal in London, England.

 

[bondboy]

Originally posted by: ultimatebob
Ever see the Mad Max movies? Yeah.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[erikistired]

*yawn* what if what if what if. what if the world exploded tomorrow? that would SUCK.

 

[I Saw OJ]

Originally posted by: TrueBlueLS
I'd quit my job, sell my car, and find a new job within walking distance of my house.

QFT


I would be screwed, lol

 

[amicold]

Originally posted by: TXHokie
It'd be cheaper to hire someone to pull me to work in a rickshaw.

Seinfeld .

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: Whitecloak
dubya will be seen as a visionary.

Why? Ever since we invaded, I haven't seen a drop of that cheap oil. In fact, we were buying THEM oil for a while...

 

[Triple J]

Originally posted by: TrueBlueLS
I'd quit my job, sell my car, and find a new job within walking distance of my house.

The problem with that is, the economy would be so rooted unemployment would go thru the roof, leaving you no chance to get a job near by. Added to the fact that no body would buy your car because cars are too expensive to run!

Inflation would be astronmical, hyper-inflation could result, the cost of basics like bread would become farcical.

In the end, once, federal oil reserves have dried up, with the inevitable economic dysfunction that would ensue, deep social unrest would break out in violence.

Meanwhile, the US government would consider this an act of terrorism by OPEC and would begin trying to gain control of world oil reserves by force. This in turn would create more middle-east unrest and global anarchy would escalate.

Outcome: we're screwed.

Oh, and here's a great investigation into peak oil Peak Oil

 

[AznAnarchy99]

All prices will have to rise. What transports the food into groceries? How else can u get ur medicine and such. Fuel is used in much more things than u would think

 

[yhelothar]

Mass rioting and protests.