, are large, not to say extremely expensive.

Yes; modern cars are increasingly frugal with fuel consumption and new technology is being developed but without a major political and economic shift the petrol (and diesel) engined vehicle will still be the transport of choice for the majority of the world's population.

In other words the demand for fuel will continue rising and the price to the consumer will continue to rise.

What about the environment?<

There is little doubt

Where Next for Fuel Prices?

With the price of Crude Oil climbing to new highs day by day and the seemingly inexhaustible demands of the tax man, our take-home pay seems to be shrinking every month. A tankful of fuel in the car gets more every time we fill up. The gas bill every quarter makes us start looking for the leaks. The electric bills arrival finds me checking the meter readings because Ima certain there must have been a mistake. On top of that after a particularly dry couple of winters there is a hosepipe ban so I cannot wash the car and the water rates have gone up again! Without being extravagant in our expenditure, the end of every month appears to arrive with a nil balance in our banks account or even worse...

The question is - can we do anything about it?

Do you think fuel prices are going to come back down?

Somehow I think not. Oil is a finite resource and will eventually run out

Yes; the oil companies have geologists working around the clock in the most inhospitable places on earth looking for new supplies, but it will still run out. It has a scarcity value which means that the price of crude oil and therefore fuel at the pump will always tend to rise.

Yes;there are reserves in places like the oil sands and oil shales and, as the World Energy Council noted;-

"If a technology can be developed to economically recover oil from oil shale, the potential is tantalisingly enormous."

If the contained organic material could be converted to oil, the quantities would be far beyond all known conventional oil reserves. Oil shale in great quantities exists worldwide: including in Australia, Canada, China, Russia, South Africa, and the USA. With increasing numbers of countries experiencing declines in conventional oil production perhaps oil shale will eventually find a place in the world economy, but the energy demands of blasting, transport, crushing, heating etc, together with the safe disposal of huge quantities of waste material, are large, not to say extremely expensive.

Yes; modern cars are increasingly frugal with fuel consumption and new technology is being developed but without a major political and economic shift the petrol (and diesel) engined vehicle will still be the transport of choice for the majority of the world's population.

In other words the demand for fuel will continue rising and the price to the consumer will continue to rise.

What about the environment?<

There is little doubt

a hosepipe ban so I cannot wash the car and the water rates have gone up again! Without being extravagant in our expenditure, the end of every month appears to arrive with a nil balance in our banks account or even worse...

The question is - can we do anything about it?

Do you think fuel prices are going to come back down?

Somehow I think not. Oil is a finite resource and will eventually run out

Yes; the oil companies have geologists working around the clock in the most inhospitable places on earth looking for new supplies, but it will still run out. It has a scarcity value which means that the price of crude oil and therefore fuel at the pump will always tend to rise.

Yes;there are reserves in places like the oil sands and oil shales and, as the World Energy Council noted;-

"If a technology can be developed to economically recover oil from oil shale, the potential is tantalisingly enormous."

If the contained organic material could be converted to oil, the quantities would be far beyond all known conventional oil reserves. Oil shale in great quantities exists worldwide: including in Australia, Canada, China, Russia, South Africa, and the USA. With increasing numbers of countries experiencing declines in conventional oil production perhaps oil shale will eventually find a place in the world economy, but the energy demands of blasting, transport, crushing, heating etc, together with the safe disposal of huge quantities of waste material, are large, not to say extremely expensive.

Yes; modern cars are increasingly frugal with fuel consumption and new technology is being developed but without a major political and economic shift the petrol (and diesel) engined vehicle will still be the transport of choice for the majority of the world's population.

In other words the demand for fuel will continue rising and the price to the consumer will continue to rise.

What about the environment?<

There is little doubt

able places on earth looking for new supplies, but it will still run out. It has a scarcity value which means that the price of crude oil and therefore fuel at the pump will always tend to rise.

Yes;there are reserves in places like the oil sands and oil shales and, as the World Energy Council noted;-

"If a technology can be developed to economically recover oil from oil shale, the potential is tantalisingly enormous."

If the contained organic material could be converted to oil, the quantities would be far beyond all known conventional oil reserves. Oil shale in great quantities exists worldwide: including in Australia, Canada, China, Russia, South Africa, and the USA. With increasing numbers of countries experiencing declines in conventional oil production perhaps oil shale will eventually find a place in the world economy, but the energy demands of blasting, transport, crushing, heating etc, together with the safe disposal of huge quantities of waste material, are large, not to say extremely expensive.

Yes; modern cars are increasingly frugal with fuel consumption and new technology is being developed but without a major political and economic shift the petrol (and diesel) engined vehicle will still be the transport of choice for the majority of the world's population.

In other words the demand for fuel will continue rising and the price to the consumer will continue to rise.

What about the environment?<

There is little doubt

d be converted to oil, the quantities would be far beyond all known conventional oil reserves. Oil shale in great quantities exists worldwide: including in Australia, Canada, China, Russia, South Africa, and the USA. With increasing numbers of countries experiencing declines in conventional oil production perhaps oil shale will eventually find a place in the world economy, but the energy demands of blasting, transport, crushing, heating etc, together with the safe disposal of huge quantities of waste material, are large, not to say extremely expensive.

Yes; modern cars are increasingly frugal with fuel consumption and new technology is being developed but without a major political and economic shift the petrol (and diesel) engined vehicle will still be the transport of choice for the majority of the world's population.

In other words the demand for fuel will continue rising and the price to the consumer will continue to rise.

What about the environment?<

There is little doubt

, are large, not to say extremely expensive.

Yes; modern cars are increasingly frugal with fuel consumption and new technology is being developed but without a major political and economic shift the petrol (and diesel) engined vehicle will still be the transport of choice for the majority of the world's population.

In other words the demand for fuel will continue rising and the price to the consumer will continue to rise.

What about the environment?<

There is little doubt that we, as the predominant species on the planet, are making irrecoverable changes to our environment. Particularly in the western democracies, we have spent the earth's resources like there is no tomorrow. We have developed huge industrial complexes and built millions of motor vehicles just as we pleased. We have plundered the reserves of coal, oil and minerals in the never-ending search for wealth and national prestige.

Unfortunately "tomorrow" has now arrived and we find ourselves in the situation where developing nations, in particular China and India, are becoming industrialised nations on a huge scale and at an accelerating pace.

The likelihood of established, and newly "enlightened" nations in the west, persuading the new emerging, industrial giants to give up on their expansion is, to put it frankly, nil! Which leaves us where?

As individuals we have a choice to make. Whether we just sit back and throw our hands in the air saying:

It's not my fault, what can I do?

Or we can look for ways to influence todays situation so that it's better tomorrow.

• Yes, we should be trying to persuade our political masters of the need for scientific research into alternative sources of energy
• Yes, we should be trying to assist developing countries to build cleaner power stations.
• Yes, we should use the ballot box to make our feelings known.
• But we should also be doing that little bit ourselves in order to reduce the environmental impact of our actions.

And why not do that by saving a bit of money at the same time?

Which brings us back to reason for this article. Let's look at ways to get better fuel economy and save a bit of money. Lets look for fuel efficiency and save fuel while we drive. Let's talk about alternative fuels such as Biofuel and Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Let's consider an LPG conversion for our existing car and let's combat rising petrol prices.

In fact let us