3-1-2011
http://money.msn.com/how-to-budget/what-if-gas-cost-10-dollars-a-gallon.aspx?GT1=33029
What if gas cost $10 a gallon?
If you drove up to the pump tomorrow and saw that gasoline had hit $10 a gallon, you'd have to start acting as though you lived in a remote Alaskan village, where $10-a-gallon gasoline is already a reality.
"It's hard for people to stop using fuel," says Fred Rozell, the director of retail pricing for the
Oil Price Information Service, which tracks gas prices at more than 100,000 stations around the U.S. "They must still drive to work. They can only do so much telecommuting or carpooling. Most driving is still needed, and people make up for the increased cost in other areas of their lives."
Buying gas also might not be as easy as it is now. Gas stations would beef up security because gas theft is always a bigger problem when prices go up, says Hale, of Nielsen.
"Pay inside first" would be a minimum step toward tighter security. Stations might do away with self-service pumps or devise barricade or key-card systems to restrict entry and exit at stations.
"According to all the polls, the most important reason that more people don't buy these vehicles is that they cost too much," says
Denis Hayes, often recognized as the founder of
Earth Day and now the president of the Bullitt Foundation, a Seattle organization supporting sustainable communities in the Pacific Northwest. "Assuming people are being honest with the pollsters . . . the savings in fuel costs would more than make up the difference of the initial cost."
He says that gas prices at $10 a gallon might be "what gets us over the hump in terms of realizing our dependence on petroleum."
"We would have to find alternative sources of energy, which would improve our position in the world economy, since we would be keeping more of it here instead of going elsewhere to import oil."
The reaction to high gas prices in Alaska has been an effort to find other energy sources.
"Alternative energy -- hydro, wind, biomass -- can offset 20% of total energy needs" in Alaskan villages, says Bruce Tiedeman, the rural outreach coordinator for the
Alaska Energy Authority, "and some communities are close to getting away from 100% dependence on petroleum."