"If gas prices are influenced by the world supply of oil, what will happen when we run out of oil? The surprising answer is, we probably won't. That doesn't mean that the rampant use of fossil fuels isn't a concern -- they are very harmful to the environment, and dwindling supplies will still cause massive changes in our economy -- but oil will get too expensive to use long before we run out.
The world oil supply acts like an asymptotic value, which is just a mathematical term for a value that gets closer and closer to another value, but never actually gets there. In this case, the "other value" is zero, or no oil left anywhere. Why would we never get there? Oil companies start out with the easiest (and cheapest) oil to find and bring to the surface. Once that runs out, they have to find more oil, which might be harder to harvest. As time goes on and the oil supply dwindles, it will get harder and harder (and more and more expensive) to find what's left. Eventually, it will get so expensive to find and harvest the remaining oil that no one will be able to afford it. The rising costs will force us to develop other energy sources."
What's interesting here to me is that it is a simple refutation to
all the doomsday preachers out there -- it predicts the rise of oil
prices to climb over time thereby allowing that same time to
be used in developing alternative means for fuel (i.e. all electric
and in the near term electric-hybrid vehicles).
I love my m3 -- but if an electric or electric hybrid were released sometime in the next year or two that doesn't utterly effeminate me (inner dialog: yes, I want a gas efficient/independent car, but I also want one that looks nice and performs well -- don't make me choose something only a hippie could ever love!), and cost less than $40k, I'd buy it. General Motors: prove me wrong!
full article: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/gas-price.htm