I saw the answer to America's oil and transportation problems in Amsterdam

Amsterdam traffic jam:

Los Angeles traffic jam:

Think about it...

Nothing wrong with getting your fat a** on a bike

With oil soaring to over $110 a barrel, those Hummers and homes in far-flung suburbs just got even more worthless

It sickened me to see cash-strapped families pushed out to the far-flung fringes of Phoenix during the mania - places like Verrado and Maricopa, which were a good 25 miles outside of downtown. Why they thought they had to 'buy' instead of renting a place closer in is beyond me, but alas, that's what they did.

So these communities will now become foreclosure ghost towns. The 'buyers' there were failed flippers as well as the last suckers in, using toxic loans, barely able to afford the minimum payment, let alone a 50% spike in gas prices to get to work. A lot of them were illegal immigrants, who put no money down and now get to just walk away. While Bear Stearns fails.

Prices in places like these are already down 50% from their peak. Is 80% off feasible?

And for the rest of America, besides the crash in exurb home prices, get ready for a firesale on big pickup trucks, Hummers, Navigators and all the gas-guzzlers. There's going to be a swift downsizing in lifestyles, led by the size of cars and homes.

$5 gas changes everything.

"I've heard people say that Maricopa is going to be a ghost town because people are trying to get out," says Margie O'Campo de Castillo of Arizona Dream Realty.

"They can't afford the drive any longer. The time and the cost of driving back and forth is just not sustainable."

Think that house 20 miles away from everything is depreciating fast today? Just wait. Welcome to a world with not enough oil to meet demand.

Get beyond the "peak oil" argument and freak show, and just look (again, and as always) to basic supply and demand. Long term we know we'll move off of oil and into renewable energy resources, but short term, we're screwed. There isn't enough production capacity to meet demand over the next decade or more, with China, India and the developing world heating up, and the US addicted to the black stuff with absolutely no conservation plan or renewables push.

We're simply gonna run short. And how does the market deal with shortages? You got it - prices will go through the roof. The only way to lower demand, and it will be painful (for consumers) yet oh, so profitable (for oil companies and refiners and alternative fuel producers).

Get ready. And if you haven't already, sell that house out in the exurbs as fast as you can. And the stupid Hummer H2 too.

Oil companies see profits soar … but warn production cannot meet demand

OIL GIANTS BP, Shell and Exxon will heighten fears that petrol prices are set to jump the £1-a-litre barrel barrier this week when they are all expected to admit that their production is failing to keep pace with surging global demand.

Their message will reinforce the recent stark warning from the International Energy Agency that there could be oil industry shortages stretching up to 2012 despite the vast sums now being spent on exploration and development.

For once the disappointing news on output could overshadow the level of profits the companies are earning even though Exxon, for example, is expected to announce second quarter earnings of approaching $11 billion (£5.5bn) which is the highest ever earned by a single company in such a short period.

The oil companies are expected to blame various outside factors for the disappointing production levels, including falling output from the North Sea, terrorism in Nigeria and Iraq and political interference in Venezuela, as well as restrictions by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Columnist: Record gasoline prices great news for U.S.

I commented the other day that the only thing that'd get America off the crack is $10 gas. Mass transit, conservation, urban planning, energy policy, hybrids, alt fuels, the end of suburbia, you know the drill. It hurt America to have cheap gas a bit ago. Made us stupid. Time to get smart.

Meanwhile, look what's going in in Russia, Venezuela, Iran, Iraq and hell even Kazakhstan. It's all about oil folks, we're addicts, and yet we do nothing on the demand side. All we do is try to control the supply side, and we have failed.

Hurrah! Great news! When I filled up my car's gas tank yesterday, I paid an all-time record $3.41 a gallon, and experts are predicting that gasoline prices may soon reach $4 a gallon.

I can't wait!

I'm not kidding. I am more convinced than ever that unless gasoline prices rise above $4 a gallon, there won't be a nationwide uproar strong enough to force Washington to get serious about reducing the U.S. suicidal dependence on foreign oil.

Barring $4-a-gallon gasoline prices, America will not get serious about reducing toxic emissions that worsen global warming, and will continue to fund corrupt Middle Eastern kingdoms that deny basic civil rights to women and fund Islamic fundamentalist schools, some of which preach violence against innocent ''infidels'' in the name of Allah.

And, closer to home, without $4 a gallon gasoline, Washington will most likely continue filling the pockets of oil-rich tropical autocrats.

Venezuela's narcissist-Leninist President Hugo Chávez is a perfect example of U.S. oil-funded radicalism. When he was first elected in 1998 and oil prices were at $9 a barrel, Chávez was ridiculing critics who speculated that he would become a radical leftist. ''Me, a Communist?'' he asked reporters.

Today, with oil prices at more than $62 a barrel, Chávez ends his speeches proclaiming ''Socialism or Death!'' He claims that the United States is ''the cruelest, most terrible, most cynical, most murderous empire that has existed.'' And he chaperones Iranian Holocaust-denying President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad throughout Latin America.

Granted, the Bush administration will tell you that it is doing a lot to reduce America's oil consumption. In his recent State of the Union address, Bush laid plans to reduce U.S. gasoline usage by 20 percent over the next 10 years, among other things by increasing the supply of alternative fuels such as ethanol.

But Bush, a Texas oilman at heart, and the U.S. Congress, not immune to the car lobby, are far too timid in attacking the U.S. foreign oil addiction.

What's the price of gas back there in America?

I haven't driven for over a year and a half, so I could care less if it's $2 or $10 a gallon. Actually I'd rather see $10 a gallon so that way more hybrids would be on the roads, less of those stupid tank-size SUVs, less far-flung Wal-Mart exurbs, and much more use of light rail, trains and buses.

But for America to head that direction, I think $6 - $8 per gallon gas is key (at today's prices). If those terrorists had succeeded in destroying the Saudi oil infrastructure the other day, $6 would have been in the realm of reality overnight. Or watch what happens if we (or Israel) attack Iran... Think home values are plunging on the city fringes today? Just wait.

It's $8 a gallon here in the UK, and yes, almost everyone I know uses public transport. The only people who seem to drive are rich people, people who have to for whatever reason, ladies who lunch (i.e. soccer moms), and public transport snobs. As cities get more and more crowded, not only will driving get more expensive, but it'll be quicker to get from A to B using transport. You'll see.

If I were president, I'd phase in a higher gas tax (raise it 50c a year for 10 years), I'd get serious about fuel efficiency standards for all manufacturers, I'd launch a tax-credit-based conservation jihad, and I'd build a nationwide world-class mass transport system (using the gas tax).

What's Bush's energy policy by the way? What are his ideas on the issue? Anyone? Anyone?

Fill up those tanks, sell those houses - Iran's getting nutty...

Ya really gotta give it up for Iran, their nutjob President and their shia islamic doomsday-cult-leaders. They sure have cojones...

* Continue building nukes - check

* Thumb nose at UN, Security Council and world community - check

* Abduct British hostages, threaten with death - check

* Kill American soldiers while meddling in Iraqi affairs - check

* Call for the destruction of Israel and deny the Holocaust - check

* Eagerly await the return of the Hidden Imam - check

Yup, everything is right on track I'd say. President Cheney must be barely able to control himself tonight, as he rolls on the ground with glee...


Stay tuned...