A gas station attendant pumps gas in Portland, Oregon, July 2009. (AP)

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The planet has a lot of people, more cars every day, and only so much oil.

Chris Steiner reckons that means the price of gas is going up. Maybe way up. He’s written a book called “$20 Per Gallon,” with a chapter for the impact of every tick up along the way.

At $8 a gallon, the airlines close down. At $10 a gallon, Disney World goes dark. At $14 a gallon, Wal-Mart is done. It can’t afford to ship products.

He calls it a thought exercise. He may be dead wrong. Or not.

This hour, On Point: $20 a gallon. Chris Steiner says we’ll like our world better.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Chicago is Christopher Steiner, author of “$20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives For the Better.” He’s also a staff writer for Forbes magazine and a civil engineer.

And from Bald Head Island, N.C., we’re joined by Mark Mills, co-author (with Peter Huber) of “The Bottomless Well: The Twilight of Fuel, the Virtue of Waste, and Why We Will Never Run Out of Energy.” His recent column in Forbes is “Don’t Bet on $800-a-Barrel Oil.” He’s a physicist, a former staff consultant to the White House Science Office under President Ronald Reagan, and co-founding partner of Digital Power Capital, an energy tech venture fund.

A Saudi official stands in front of a Saudi oil industry picture at a hotel in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, June 21, 2008, ahead of a major oil summit. (AP Photo/Hasan Jamali)

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“Energy independence,” the idea that America must break its addiction to foreign oil, is a big theme of the ‘08 presidential race. In fact presidents since Richard Nixon have argued that powering cars and heating homes with crude from unstable and unfriendly countries puts our national security at risk.

Or does it? Our guest today, Robert Bryce, an outspoken contrarian on energy policy, has a different view of things. On the one hand, he’s got solar panels on his house. But he says the idea of energy independence is a “dangerous delusion” in a global economy. Forget energy independence, he says. America’s best way forward is energy interdependence.

This hour, On Point: Is America over a barrel? A controversial voice in the energy debate.

You can join the conversation. Do you think America’s reliance on foreign oil puts this country’s national security at risk? Can the U.S. afford to take itself out of the global market for oil? Tell us what you think.

-Jane Clayson, guest host

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Guests:

Joining us from Austin, Texas, is Robert Bryce. He’s the managing editor of Energy Tribune magazine and has written on energy for twenty years. His latest book is “Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of Energy Independence.” You can read excerpts from the book that appeared in The Texas Observer.

Joining us from Rockville, Maryland is Anne Korin, co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security and chair of the Set America Free Coalition, an alliance that promotes ways to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil.

And joining us from Pagosa Springs, Colorado, is Miriam Horn. She’s on the staff of Environmental Defense Fund and is co-author, with Fred Krupp, of “Earth: The Sequel—The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming.”

Indigenous people from around 40 different ethnic groups protest in front of Lago Agrio's Supreme Court in western Ecuador, July 3, 2007. (AP Photo/Eduardo Valenzuela).

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In a town called Lago Agrio, “sour lake,” deep in the oil-rich rain forest of Ecuador, what could be the biggest environmental lawsuit in history is being fought.

It’s a battle pitting 30,000 indigenous Ecuadorians, and a team of American trial lawyers, against the U.S. oil giant Chevron. The plaintiffs claim Chevron is responsible for the damage caused by 18 billion gallons of toxic oil waste, and an Ecuadorian court-appointed expert recommends the company pay up to $16 billion.

Chevron says the case is fundamentally flawed. Activists call it a global game-changer.

This hour, On Point: Oil and justice in the Amazon.

-Jane Clayson, guest host

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Guests:

Isabel Ordonez, a reporter for Dow Jones Newswires, she covers Chevron, Exxon, and Conoco Philips, for Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal. “Chevron Struggles With Toxic Claim In Ecuador,” the first installment in her three-part series for Dow Jones on the Chevron-Ecuador case, is out today.

Steven Donziger, an attorney based in New York and an advisor to the legal team representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit “Aguinda vs. Texaco-Chevron.”

Silvia Garrigo, former senior counsel for Chevron and now manager of Global Issues and Policy for the company. She has worked on the Ecuador case from the outset.

Kelly Hearn, staff reporter for The Washington Times and former correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor. His reporting on Amazonian oil issues was sponsored by The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, and his articles on the subject have appeared in The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, National Geographic News and The Virginia Quarterly Review. He has covered the Chevron case since 2005.

More links:

Texaco in Ecuador
Chevron’s website devoted to telling its side of the story in the Ecuador case, contains the company’s news releases and statements, its positions on the environmental and health claims, remediation, and more.

Amazon Watch
The advocacy group, whose stated mission is “to defend the environment and rights of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin,” offers a special site devoted to the Ecuador case.

Nine American soldiers were killed in an assault by Taliban militants this week, the deadliest attack on U.S. forces in Afghanistan in three years. (AP Photo)

It was ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ time this week for the US economy, and not in a happy way. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, IndyMac and more had the government scrambling to stave off disaster and Americans lining up at the bank door. Not a pretty picture.

Inflation’s up. Oil’s down – a bit, thank heavens. Obama’s headed abroad with all three network anchors. McCain’s talking to the NAACP.

We’ve got a call for more troops in Afghanistan, and a last All Star game at old Yankee Stadium.

This hour, On Point: our weekly roundtable goes behind the headlines.

- Tom Ashbrook

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Guests:

David Ignatius, columnist and editor at The Washington Post.

Chrystia Freeland, US managing editor of the Financial Times.

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly.

Americans believe in markets, and, over time, markets have worked very well for Americans. But what about now, when oil markets and oil prices and speculation in those markets are sky high and still climbing?

We know oil supply is not infinite, and demand is huge. We knew cheap oil couldn’t last forever. But with oil at $138 dollars a barrel and forecast for 200, are we being taken to the cleaners by speculators?

Congress, Barack Obama, and John McCain are saying maybe so.

This hour, On Point: Markets, the price of oil, and the weight of speculation.

- Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Ian Talley, energy reporter for The Wall Street Journal, he covered the Congressional hearings yesterday on energy speculation.

James Hamilton, professor of economics at the University of California at San Diego. He has looked closely at the after-effects of oil price shocks.

Mark Cooper, director of research at the Consumer Federation of America, he testified last week before the Senate on energy speculation, arguing for more regulation in the commodities markets.

Rep. Bart Stupak, Democratic Congressman from Michigan’s 1st District, member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, which held the hearing yesterday on energy speculation.

For thirty years now, more and more Americans have flown at the drop of a hat. Cheaper flights and more flights made the country seem smaller.

Home in Dallas. Cabin in Vermont. Kids in California. Parents in Florida. Vacation far away — no problem, we’ll all fly.

But the oil price surge that is spiking gas prices and rattling the economy is whipping up jet fuel prices, too. Nobody knows when or if they’ll come down. Airlines are chopping flights, mothballing planes, preparing for “extreme” fare hikes.

An era, it appears, is ending. This hour, On Point: Grappling with the end of affordable air travel.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Micheline Maynard, correspondent for The New York Times covering business and the airline industry.

Andrew Goetz, professor and chair of the geography department at the University of Denver

Deborah Smith, professor of sociology at the University of Missouri, Kansas City

If you want to see into the future, what we just had was a week full of glimpses.

Oil, above all, shattering record after record. Airlines now charging by the bag for luggage, and much more change to come.

On the campaign trail, running-mate talk heating up as McCain, Clinton and Obama race for the White House.

In the Mideast, big players talking without the US. In Congress, a Farm Bill and a GI Bill in play. In Myanmar, maybe a green light for international aid.

And Ted Kennedy goes sailing after tough news on brain cancer.

This hour, On Point: we go behind the headlines.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

John Harwood, chief political correspondent for CNBC and a political writer for The New York Times. His new book, co-written with Gerald Seib, is “Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power”

Eleanor Clift, contributing editor at Newsweek and author of the weekly “Capitol Letter” column. She’s author of “Two Weeks of Life: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Politics”

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly

Suddenly, even for people who don’t follow oil futures and Saudi production estimates, the lid seems to have blown off energy prices.

Oil is at double its price of a year ago and still soaring. Some now predict $200 dollars a barrel. Many Americans remember when it was twenty.

Gasoline is heading over the four-dollar-a-gallon mark. Some are talking six dollars a gallon.

Congress wants to know why. American families want to know how they’re going to deal with the surge.

This hour, On Point: Oil and gas prices over the moon, and where this story goes.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Chris Baltimore, oil correspondent for Reuters.

Amy Jaffe, fellow in energy studies and associate director of energy policy at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.

Catherine Mann, professor of economics at Brandeis University.

Daniel J. Weiss, senior fellow and director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress.

The Irrawaddy delta in Myanmar is underwater, thousands dead, and environmentalists say it’s global warming. Monster tornadoes are plaguing the U.S. — last weekend in Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia.

Meanwhile, far away, on the west coast of Alaska, the tiny fishing village of Kivalina is falling into the sea. And its attorneys are suing 24 oil, coal and electric companies, saying their emissions are responsible.

Sound crazy? These same attorneys fought over Big Tobacco, and Big Tobacco lost.

This hour, On Point: the courts and climate change.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Juliet Eilperin, environment and national politics reporter for The Washington Post.

Steve Susman, co-lead counsel in the case of “Native Village of Kivalina and City of Kivalina v. Exxon Mobil,” founding partner at the law firm Susman Godfrey, and former lawyer for Philip Morris.

Steve Berman, co-lead counsel in “Native Village of Kivalina and City of Kivalina v. Exxon Mobil”, managing partner at Hagens, Berman, Sobol & Shapiro, and former anti-tobacco lawyer.

Enoch Adams Jr., chairman of the Kivalina Relocation Planning Committee.

Jeffrey R. Holmstead, former assistant administrator for air and radiation at the United States Environmental Protection Agency and head of the environmental strategies group at the law firm of Bracewell and Giuliani.

Hillary Clinton and John McCain say they want to drop federal gas taxes for the summer. Barack Obama says no.

If you’re strapped for cash and struggling with higher food and energy prices, it can sound like a good idea. But step back just half an inch from presidential campaign follies, and the idea can look pretty ridiculous.

Obama calls it pandering and bad policy. But sometimes pandering works, even if it is bad policy.

This hour, On Point: we hear from all three campaigns and an energy economist on our energy future, and why they stand where they stand on the gas tax holiday.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Stephen Power, energy reporter for The Wall Street Journal.

Robert Pindyck, professor of economics and finance at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

Nancy Pfotenhauer, econmic advisor to Senator John McCain.

Gary Gensler, senior advisor to Senator Hillary Clinton.

Jason Grumet, senior energy advisor to Senator Barack Obama.

Even President Bush said last week, “We’ve got to get off oil.” But we’re not off oil. Not by a long, long shot.

And now oil is hitting all-time record prices, again. $109 dollars a barrel this morning. It hits our lives and economy in a million ways. It especially hits the ways we move. Three dollars plus and counting for gas. Filling up the family car, or the big rig, or the jet airliner is getting scary.

If oil keeps going up, how do we keep getting to work? Delivering the freight? Flying to grandma’s house?

This hour, On Point: Transportation, and how we will move in the age of high oil.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Javier Blas, reporter for The Financial Times.

Rick Geddes, economist and professor at Cornell University, he served on the recent National Commission on Surface Transportation and on the Council of Economic Advisors under President George W. Bush.

James Howard Kuntsler, author of “The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change and Other Converging Catastrophes of the 21st Century,” and a new novel, “World Made By Hand.”

Bestselling writer Ben Mezrich has made his name and fortune tracking young hot shots chasing big money on the edge. He did it in “Bringing Down the House” and in “Busting Vegas,” where fast cars and fast women and casino life were the currency.

Now he’s doing it in the world of oil: oil traders, the young hot shots who juggle black gold billions, drag-race Ferraris in the desert, and drive fast fortunes from New York to Dubai.

His new book is called “Rigged.” With oil at $93 dollars a barrel, the whole world is watching.

This hour, On Point: inside the megabucks trading world of oil.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Ben Mezrich, author of the best-seller “Bringing Down the House” and of the new book “Rigged: The True Story of an Ivy League Kid Who Changed the World of Oil, from Wall Street to Dubai.”

John D’Agostino, former vice president at the New York Mercantile Exchange and now president of Dagger, LLC, an energy-trading consulting firm.

Iraq has the world’s third largest proven reserves of oil, and they’re barely tapped. This week, the price of oil reached $82 dollars a barrel — the highest in history. And Alan Greenspan says in his new memoir that, at least for him, the U.S. invasion of Iraq was “largely about oil.”

Iraq’s ocean of oil is a source of endless speculation, maneuver, sectarian tension, war and conflict — inside Iraq and out — over who gets what and how. The oil companies are circling. The world is thirsty.

Up next, On Point: the lowdown on the oil of Iraq, and its endless spillover.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Amy Jaffe, energy expert and fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute.

Flynt Leverett, former senior director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council, former Middle East analyst at the State Department and CIA, he’s currently director of the Geopolitics of Energy Initiative at the New America Foundation and author of “Inheriting Syria: Bashar’s Trial by Fire” (2005).

Issam Chalabi, Iraq’s minister of oil from 1987 to 1990.

Nathaniel Kern, president of Foreign Reports, a consulting firm providing political analysis for the oil industry.