More bad news about gas prices. Department of Natural Resources fuel-price analyst David Downing says you could see digits changing at the pump faster than expected. He says crude-oil imports and inventories are down, but experts had expected them to be up. Another unpleasant surprise is our appetite for gas, which at eight-point-six million barrels a day is the kind of demand you normally only see in summertime. Gas-gobbling pickup trucks and S-U-V’s are blamed for this year’s high demand, but Downing says relief could be on the horizon in the form of even newer transportation technology.New fuel-cell vehicles to be rolled out in 2004-5 will have virtually no moving parts and could really be a hit. You’d better hope there’s an alternative, because Downing says developing nations will catch up with us in their demand for petroleum before long. The federal energy department outlook predicts world energy use will grow 60-percent over today’s usage by the year 2020.
