Future Car: What will you be driving?

With oil in the $75 range, American automakers have responded by... designing new large SUVs. It's hard to blame them, when there's little evidence that American consumers have shown any willingness to drive around in vehicles occupying less than an acre of road space.

In fact, despite the rising costs of fuel, statistics out last week show that the average MPG grew from 21 MPG in 2005 to.... 21 MPG in 2006.

But if there's one sure thing, it's that it will get worse. As Jerome a Paris has detailed in his series of diaries, there's every evidence that the post-Katrina rise in oil prices is only a prelude to what's to come. There's little to no capacity for expansion on the production end of the pipe, and an ever greater demand sucking at the other end. You couldn't ask for a better formula for demonstrating the effects of supply and demand on prices. Forget "price gouging." That's only a distraction. Oil prices are going to go up, and there's next to nothing any president or congress can do to prevent it.

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