If you’ve heard the news lately then you’ve probably been made aware of the impending gas price spikes over the summer. With predictions of an average price of over $4.00 per gallon it’s safe to say that many people will have to carefully plan (or replan) their summer vacations. Some parts of California have already seen prices near $4.50 a gallon as of this last week. Sounds exciting right? Well it is for the oil investors but maybe not so much for the rest of us.

While this is certainly an unfortunate price for gas, one benefit that could arise from this is an increased interest in hybrid vehicles and alternate fuel sources. At this point the “transition” away from gas is hardly underway. Unless there are some major changes soon it looks like we might need to each get our own personal Mel Gibson to go get our gas for us when it runs out. (Mad Max anyone?)

We’ll see what the summer has in store, but, I think it is definitely time for the US to subsidize the cost by tapping into our Alaska oil. Sure it might make sense to save that for absolute emergencies, but hey, unless the government wants to play a bigger role in helping new fuel source and hybrid vehicle research then at this point the gas prices alone could constitute as an emergency. For many people this will simply mean less driving, but, for others it will mean less food on the table.