Well, the bad news is this is just the start. A lot of changes wil happen in our lifetime in regards to cheap energy based on petrol.
The planet consumes 1 billion barrels of oil every 11 days. We are pumping out way more oil than they can find new reserves of, and with the way India and China are growing, it is only getting worse.
Simple supply and demand, oil is not renewable and moreover everyone wants to live like an American. So, demand goes up , supply goes down - prices rise. A term you will hear a lot of is "peak oil". Well, we have hit "peak oil" production - and supplies will begin going down within 5 years or so, as demand increases from global population growth / Asian economic growth.
Goldman Sachs released this report today, sent prices of crude up big time:
The bank called its forecast "conservative."
Goldman sees oil spiking to $105
http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/31/news...dman_oil.reut/
my suggestion - get a diesel powered vehicle and rig it to run on vegtable oil. You'll be laughing at your neighbor who is filling up at $10 a gallon in 2010