I came across a new term related to peak oil: demand destruction.

This will occur after we reach peak oil and the price for gasoline starts to rise, and rise high enough to reduce demand.

Economists think that gas prices can rise as high as $5 per gallon without reducing the demand.

The number they are looking at is $7.50 per gallon. They think this price won't bring transportation to a halt, but it will make people think twice before starting their car. "Is this trip really necessary?"

The pain at this price level will make people really start to look at alternative energy sources and aggressively look for ways to reduce energy consumption. No more SUV's. Most airlines will go out of business. Flying will be cost-prohibitive for most people. More train travel. Some people have even predicted that living in the suburbs will be too expensive because you can't walk anywhere to run errands like you can in a city.

Another interesting development related to peak oil is that China wants to buy the California oil company Unocal and their oil reserves for $18.5 in cash. China is the second largest consumer of oil behind the US. Their consumption is dramatically increasing and they want to use the huge amounts of cash they have accumulated from Wal-Mart buying their cheap consumer products to stock their stores over the last decade to accumulate as much oil as they can before the prices start to skyrocket.