by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Motorcars, based on the internal combustion engine, could soon become a preserve of the rich with petrol and diesel prices set to rocket to £8 a gallon, motoring organizations have warned.
As the crisis in the Middle East continued, analysts predicted the cost of crude oil could double, leaving drivers having to fork out more than £100 to fill up the average family car. And we are talking here the average family car and not, necessarily, about gas guzzlers.
The RAC warned that prices at the pumps were already “unacceptable” and predicted more and more people will be forced to stop using their cars.
Adrian Tink, RAC motoring strategist, said: “It is clear that we are getting to the stage where drivers are going to be priced out of their cars. Before we know it the car will become the preserve of the rich.”
With fears that the unrest in Libya may soon spread to Saudi Arabia and Algeria, the cost of oil has now shot up again to nearly $120 a barrel and we
are getting to the stage where drivers are going to be priced out of their cars.
Whether this is bad or not is not for me to say though my bet it with the good bit as fewer cars on the roads will mean less pollution, fewer accidents and the nation may become fitter as a result if the bikes are taken out of mothballs.
If the crisis does spread, oil industry analysts warned crude oil could hit $220 a barrel. That would mean it would cost £105.50 to fill a 1.8-litre Ford Mondeo. And the crisis may just be spreading for an oil refinery in Beiji, Iraq, was attacked by a mob and had to cease production.
Such is the concern over rising oil prices that Energy Secretary Chris Huhne attended the special Government Cobra meeting to discuss the crisis in Libya.
Road haulage groups warned that the 15 per cent increase in oil prices since last week had left the industry facing “imminent disaster” and the impact will not just be felt by motorists.
The increase in fuel costs will drive up food prices from the sides of the farmers, or they will be forced to cease production; from the transportation companies, and this will, ultimately, regardless of supermarkets maybe taking care of such increases for a while. In the long run they will not be able to doi that and the prices of everything will go up.
We have been warning here, however, already for a very long time as to the fact that oil, cheap, abundant oil, is coming to an end all over the globe and we had not even factored in uprisings and such like into the equation.
In my book “The End of Oil” I have made a number of predictions as to likely scenarios resultant from a shortage of oil and how we should be preparing for it. The way is looks right now the time is very pressing as to transitioning to a post-oil future and that, preferably, in a bit of a hurry.
Drivers should also not assume that they can swap their gas guzzler quickly for cars that run on other fuels or for electric cars. The affordable electric family car is still quite a long way of.
For many of us that means back to shank's pony, our feet, and to the iron steed, the humble bicycle. The motorcar is just finishing off its last years on Earth, methinks.
© 2011
