I doubt we've reached the peak in oil right yet. The prices were amped because of the war in Iraq. Though the demolition of oil refineries and bay's from Louisiana were quite a blow. Louisiana both imports and produces oil. Mainly the importing destroyed. The amount of oil right at this very moment that was taken by the waters and now is leaking. That would definitely be responsible for such a sudden jump. I highly doubt the war in Iraq could make prices go from 2.79 to 3.49+ seeing that kind of rise would be a slow increase.

So I definitely agree Katrina was responsible for this high rize.

One thing we need to start doing is improving natural gas (ethanol) use without the assistance of gasoline. Most gasoline is mixed with 10% of ethanol. Some busses use 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. Seeing ethanol is a fermentated byproduct. If we could improve this strictly to fuel machinery and vehicles it's renewable. So hopefully before peak oil reaches it's march we can find a different method for operating vehicles. x.x