If you think your pocketbook or wallet is hurting from the $4 per gallon gasoline that you have been buying recently, hang on to your butts. According to a Rice University study down in H-town, the U.S. could end up with gas costing over $6 per gallon if oil hits $200 a barrel.

Wow.

If you want to see how that compares to the price of gas in the U.S. over the last few years, check out the Energy Information Administration’s website keeping track of the cost of gasoline and about a thousand other things related to the name of the organization.

I’ve never felt so relieved that I sold my car and moved to New York. Of course, the flip side of that is that a package of butter cost me like $6, but in the grand scheme of things, I can’t say that I am totally upset about that. [Thomas Friedman] wrote a great column about breaking our addiction to oil, and (while I totally recognize my bias by not owning a car) I think he’s right. It hurts like hell know, but in the long run we will all be better off for it. If nothing else, maybe less children will grow up with asthma due to all the burned hydrocarbons out there.