Commute Another Way Week

...is this week!

Festivities include free rides on the state's meager city bus lines tomorrow (Tuesday). Register on the official web site to be eligible for fabulous prizes.

Maybe we should declare this "Commute the Way You'd Better Get Used to Commuting" Week. Who would have guessed that gas would be zooming right up towards $4 a gallon just as we're approaching the beginning of the high-demand summer season? And now Goldman Sachs is talking about crude oil prices going up to $200 a barrel if a major supply disruption hits (think Gulf Coast hurricane). That would translate into $7 a gallon for regular gasoline!

SEVEN DOLLARS A GALLON!

And lest you think that Goldman Sachs is just rattling speculative sabers, let's take a ride in the WayBack Machine to March 2005:

NEW YORK (MarketWatch, March 31, 2005) - Oil prices have entered the early stages of a multi-year period of trading in which economic growth and rising demand could push oil to $105 per barrel, enough to meaningfully reduce energy consumption, Goldman Sachs analysts said Thursday.

"We believe oil markets may have entered the early stages of what we have referred to as a "super spike" period -- a multi-year trading band of oil prices high enough to meaningfully reduce energy consumption and recreate a spare capacity cushion only after which will lower energy prices return," said analyst Arjun Murti.

This forecast earned GS some ridicule three years ago, but who's laughing now? Goldman Sachs was right on only one count, though. The second - meaningfully reducing energy consumption and recreating a spare capacity cushion - we're still waiting on.