If this guy's right about oil, we're screwed

I cannot even comprehend what our economy would be like if gas were to rise above $6 or $8 per gallon, much less $12 to $15, but that's precisely what energy analyst Robert Hirsch believes is going to happen.

I'm no energy expert, and I'm certainly no economist, but you have to be neither to foresee the consequences of double-digit gas prices on our economy.

I have to confess that I find it extremely annoying that certain politicians and of course the Big Oil executives (who themselves make hundreds of millions of dollars per year in compensation) are preaching that we need to drill and explore more to combat high gas prices. What a crock. However, don't take my word for it - Read Here.

Drilling in ANWR would do little more than line the pockets of Big Oil, and the politicians who approve such a move. I can just about guarantee that there would be no price relief at the pump.

What this country needs is a sound energy policy, and fast. Okay, by fast, I mean when hopefully Barack Obama takes the oath of office next January. Heaven help us if McCain is putting his hand on the Bible at noon on 1/20/09, because that will mean plenty more of the same in the way of energy policy.

We must demand a very radical mass-transit and alternative energy plan from this next administration, which in many ways will be about 170 degrees different from what the Bush administration has spent the last 7+ years giving us.

Alternative energy and mass transit will be a major, major theme of this blog in the coming months and years, including form letters to use to write your elected legislators, news, views, ideas on how to save energy, etc., so stay tuned. This one affects us all, and there will be no hiding from it in the coming years and decades. We've already seen what rising gas prices have done to the prices of just about everything, and it's only going to get worse, unless we demand that our state legislatures and Congress do something about it.

(Major hat tip to Crooks & Liars for the video, as well as the research in finding the MSNBC link on the '04 ANWR study.)