Hit on New Orleans would likely cause gas prices to soar

First and foremost, prayers to the residents of New Orleans, greater Mississippi and Southern Alabama. May God spare you and your loved ones from this impending disaster.

A few weeks back I saw a movie on FX called "Oil Storm." It was shot in documentary style and the premise of it was that a hurricane hit NOLA, thrashing all of the Gulf offshore oil riggs. This starts the US on a course toward disaster because the price of oil skyrockets well out of the means of most average Americans. We then ink a deal with the Saudi's to increase oil imports, which causes a terrorist attack by Al Qaeda. We then send troops to secure Saudi oil fields and then they get attacked. Long story short, the US nearly goes to pieces, all because oil prices have become catastropically high. This of course was a fictional story based on the real possibility of a hurricane wrecking the Gulf oil digging facilities.

Truth is stranger than fiction. In the 4 times I've been to NOLA, I've heard each time that a good size hurricane (category 5) will most likely end the Big Easy. As if it were God's cruel joke, that day has come. I don't know if it's because of the inevitable cost in human lives or my own sentimental attachment to the city that has meant so much to my friends and fiance or if it's just the new contacts in my eyes but everytime I think about what Katrina will do to the city I love, I want to bawl my eyes out.

Don't get me wrong, my primary concern is the welfare of the residents that lie in the path of Katrina's destruction. But, to paraphrase Morgan Freeman from the movie, Deep Impact, "Tomorrow the waters will recede and we will rebuild." When this is over we as global citizens will have to come face to face with some very real and very dire circumstances. Because of zealous corporatism, lack of education and organization on the part of average Americans and plain old shortsighted greed, we in America are not prepared to deal with any significant change in our oil dependant economy. Prepare for the coming Oil Storm in the wake of Katrina.

Here's one story:

New Orleans stood dead in the path of Hurricane Katrina, but the entire nation will feel the brunt of the powerful storm if oil and gas operations in the Gulf get whacked.

Roughly 30 percent of the oil and gas consumed in the United States flows along pipelines or is hauled in on tankers and barges in the Gulf Coast.

A major hit would disrupt fuel shipments and send prices soaring even higher right before the Labor Day holiday, when more than 34 million Americans are projected to hit the road.

Gas prices already are up an average 83 cents a gallon this year. Analysts predict that fears of a Katrina shortage could drive crude oil prices, which traded at around $66 a barrel on Friday, to as high as $70 this week. Every additional $1 per barrel translates into more than 2 cents in the price of a gallon of gasoline.

Read More