Gasoline prices will be back up around $4 a gallon by the summer driving season. - Inspired by the International Energy Agency

The global economic slowdown has had a very palpable effect on gasoline prices of late. Demand has dwindled severely, causing oil prices to hit a two-year-low today. But according to the International Energy Agency, the respite for consumers will be brief. Even though the Energy Agency cut its forecast for global oil demand by 10 million barrels over the next twenty years, it seems that an eventual oil shortage is -- unsurprisingly — inevitable. Producers are likely to be unable to produce oil at the same rate that the world is consuming it, and so the IEA expects $4 a gallon through 2015 and $6 or $7 a gallon by 2030. “Current global trends in energy supply and consumption are patently unsustainable — environmentally, economically, and socially,” the energy agency said. “But that can — and must — be altered.”