Increasing Fuel Prices = Major Lifestyle Changes

So, with the almost daily increases in the price of crude oil, …… all you have been concerned about is the price of a gallon of gasoline, ….. huh?

Well now, when reality finally hits you squarely in the snotlocker …… I’m sure it will be quite a shock that you will have trouble recovering from.

Here below, read about some of the things you probably never thought about.

Transcript of May 7, 2008 Glenn Beck’s CNN TV commentary

BECK: Coming up, is America a nation in decline? Gosh, I hope not. Food and energy crisis around the world. New global powers like China and India. The constant threat of terrorists striking America again. Are these things that the greatest nation on the planet can survive? You bet. Find out in tonight`s "Real Story."

But first, airline executives have said that the business model for airlines really wasn`t built around $100-a-barrel oil. Well, that number today is a little more like $120 a barrel, and airlines are buckling as a result.

You`re reeling; you`re feeling it, too. Your family`s business model, if I will, didn`t plan on this either. You know, and it`s not just like you feel it when you`re filling up the tank or, you know, planning that summer vacation. It may not be too expensive. So it`s not just that. It`s the cost of everything you buy. It`s all going up.

Forget about, you know, the thousands of everyday products that are made with oil. Of course, they`re going to cost more than ever. But it`s also the goods and food that we need every day. Have you checked the price of cereal lately?

All of that stuff is trucked to us. Gas prices rise. The increased price of gas gets passed on to you. If you think it`s bad today, what happens if the latest prediction of oil trading at $200 a barrel comes true? Some say it`s going to be a reality that we`ll have to face as early as October.

What is life like then? When gas is $8 to $10 a gallon? How do you afford to get to work? How do you buy food? How do you heat your house or your parents or grandparents heat their house for winter? What fundamental changes could be right around the corner for all of us here on planet earth?

Byron King is an oil industry analyst and editor of "Outstanding Investments."

Byron, I don`t even know where to begin with you. Let me start, I guess, with food. According to the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization, up to 20 percent of our fossil fuel is spent growing food. The average dinner, most of it is shipped about 1,500 miles to our plate? What`s going to change if we have $200 a barrel gas?

BYRON KING, OIL INDUSTRY ANALYST: Well, you`re going to be localizing a lot more than you are now. That`s for sure, Glenn. The food system in this country was built around cheap energy, cheap transportation. Think about fertilizer, pesticide, herbicide, transportation, drying out the grain, processing the grain. It`s all a very energy-intensive process.

When you`re eating food, in a sense, you`re eating oil and gas.

BECK: OK. So hang on just a second. We just -- people will say, over in Europe, it`s already $10 a gallon. What`s the difference between us and Europe? Why can they do it and we`re going to really struggle?

KING: Well, Europe has built a different world. They have compact cities. They don`t have sprawling suburbs. They have great inner-city passenger rail. They`re used to driving smaller cars with more fuel- efficient engines.

Here in the United States, we built a country based on cheap energy, with sprawling suburbs, with you know, 40-mile commutes one way or the other. You know, the salmon that you buy in the supermarket was flown down from Alaska. It`s got more frequent flyer miles than you do.

I mean, these things are all going to be changing.

BECK: You`re saying now that, I mean, fresh fish is a thing of the past. You`re not going to have Alaskan king crab.

KING: Exactly. I mean, they fill Boeing 747s with tuna fish and fly them across the Pacific Ocean. That is not going to happen anymore.

BECK: OK. And while we`re on -- airlines, people have told me -- and I just have so much to talk to you about. We`ve only got about two minutes. I want to just take some of these up. I`ve been told airlines, it`s going to be more like 1955 than 2005.

KING: Exactly. I call it silent spring. We could see it as soon as next year. A lot of what passes for the airline industry today is going to be gone. The cheap seats are going to be gone.

What few airlines are still around, what few airplane are still around, are going to be packed to the gills with high-priced tickets flying hub cities. You know, New York to Los Angeles. Up to 70 percent of the cities in America, Glenn, are at risk of losing some or all of their scheduled airline service.

BECK: You say FedEx, UPS, that`s all going to change, because I mean, how much is it going to take to cost to ship a package.

But also, you say health care, we`ve got 40 million people they always quote that don`t have health care now. You`re saying companies are going to cut health care and shift it off to the government, because they`re going to have to pay for fuel.

KING: Exactly. Exactly, Glenn. In the last 10 and 15 years, the price of health care for employers has doubled and tripled. It`s just skyrocketing. The employers simply cannot afford skyrocketing health care and higher energy costs in terms of everything. Something`s got to give.

BECK: Byron, I`d love to have you back, because you`re at this -- this offshore tech conference in Houston. And may we have you back again and talk about what you`re learning there. Because we`re really a laughing stock there, aren`t we, in some ways?

KING: We really are, Glenn. Today, I had lunch with a guy from Malaysia, Columbia, Angola and Nigeria and Kuwait. This is who was sitting at my table for lunch. We were all talking about offshore exploration and production. This is a world industry. And the United States is falling behind because we won`t drill where we need to drill to make the oil come out.

BECK: Byron, love to have you back, because there`s just all sorts of stuff happening in foreign countries right off our shores we need to talk about. Thanks a lot.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0805/07/gb.01.html

You can watch Glenn Beck on CNN at 7:00 PM every week day.

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