Gloom and doom may be the rage these days as banks fail and icons of American industry fail but no dilemma so recent causes as much hand wringing as the proposition of peak oil.

Since 1956 experts have called for a peak in oil production and an inevitable decline in output as the amount of proven reserves dwindle. Though there have been different interpretations and wildly different time lines nearly all theories agree on one thing: the price of petroleum-based products will increase to a point where it diminishes demand rather than causes an outright shortage.

Growing up in the post 1970s gas crisis era I was aware of peak oil but never really thought about the prospect until a few years ago. My father in law turned me on to a book by Paul Roberts called The End of Oil. While I profoundly disagree with some of Roberts's assumptions I acknowledge that the prospect of costly petroleum will greatly change America, and the world, both socially and economically.

While I enjoyed the mental exercise of peak oil I put the premise in the back of my mind even through the "great Charlotte gas shortage of 2008." I must admit that my own conservationalist nature has lead me to purchase more fuel efficient vehicles and to lean toward using resources wisely, but I can't claim that this is a result of any impending crisis.

In fact I cringe when I read sensational accounts the "life changing" events that will unfold if oil, and therefore gas, creeps up beyond record levels. At first this was my reaction to something I recently read in The Rolling Stone (TRS). Bitter opinions aside about the tone and obvious slant of TRS's articles, I found a one page excerpt for a new book simply called $20 Per Gallon. by Christopher Steiner oddly compelling.

The article lays out several price points for gasoline and states both the good and the bad about each level. For example at $6.00/gallon we would experience both the death of the SUV, smog clearing from Los Angeles and also the decline of gas tax revenue. The scenarios advance further through gas at $20/gallon where "Ninety percent of Americans live in cities." Overall an interesting concept but once again I must disagree on a few assumptions the author makes.

Regardless of the speculative nature of some of these predictions I believe this sort of book is what it takes to make the average person take notice of impending events. While Steiner admits that $20 gasoline could well be twenty years away the prospect of high fuel prices should shock most consumers into the reality that things are changing and that they must change with them.

If the rise, by a few dollars, was enough to topple General Motors and Chrysler then the prospect of other systemic changes as a result of high-energy prices isn't that far fetched. I look forward to reading this book and examining one person's predictions for something that I see as inevitable and, over the long term, equally as life changing as the industrial revolution.