Step One On The Road Back To Cheap Gas

The introduction of "hybrid" cars and trucks -- combining internal-combustion engines and electric motors -- promises fuel efficiency gains of 10 percent to 50 percent based on accessible technologies. But it's also a myth that by simply issuing tougher governmental fuel standards will bring instant relief.

We have to look at the fuel efficiency of the cars and trucks we are driving and that will determine how much or how little fuel we are using in the future. And, of course, when we are using less that will create massive surpluses which traditionally will drive the price of gasoline down and it is the only way to get cheap gas prices back again.

A disastrous Hurricane revealed that we are extremely at risk to any key reduction in oil production. With gas prices souring since the Katrina disaster the phrase "cheap gas" is as dead as the dinosaurs. The Hurricane Katrina was a natural tragedy, of course, but the bigger danger is a political one. Astonishingly enough, two-thirds of the worlds establish oil coffers lie in and around the Persian Gulf region; these countries, now supply about a quarter of today's oil.

This flow of oil may possibly be broken up at any time for a wide variety of reasons; a terror campaign, war, domestic turmoil, intentional destruction, just to name a few. Many other major oil exporters such as Russia (the No. 2 exporter), Venezuela (No. 5) and Nigeria (No. 8) are equally unpredictable.

As a matter of fact, 60 percent of our oil consumption goes for transportation purposes, subject by-in-large by road travel. It's a myth that encouraging more fuel-efficient vehicles means that we will all have to drive the smallest of autos. Nothing could be farther from reality. Fuel effectiveness isn't dictated by the size of your auto but by the performance of its engine. We won't get back to having cheap gas until we start utilizing more of the technology that is readily available to make our cars and trucks more efficient.

Car and truck manufactures can move decisively in the direction of building hybrids without government demands or laws. It's no secret the sale of new cars and trucks are terrible during this fuel crisis. A big part, I believe, is because of how very easy it is to convert your existing car or truck into a hydrogen from water hybrid that reduce your fuel costs literally overnight.

Regardless of the hype, annual new hybrid sales will amount to a meager 234,000 sales out of about 17 million. If companies are to be pushed toward building more hybrids, they have to be assured of strong demand, because there's a downside. On average, hybrids cost $3,000 to $4,000 more than conventional cars.

Again, as of late, many people are finding it much cheaper to convert their own vehicles to hydrogen hybrids for less than a couple of hundred dollars. It should go without saying that much greater fuel efficiency is the next best thing to cheap gas. Car manufactures have to figure out how to do what we can do for ourselves at a better price if the public is to embrace their new hybrid cars and trucks.