[Simultaneously, the price of gas will continue to rise.]
If anything cuts into the demand for gas, its price will fall. The same happens if supply is increased.
This is part of why alternative fuels that are feasible with $60 barrel oil have failed in the past. There was an “oil boom” in Colorado in the 80’s when it looked like oil shale could produce oil cheaper than the then-current price of crude. Then OPEC opened the spigot to increase supply, the price of crude fell, and the “boom” went “bust”.
If there is one thing government might intelligently do to promote alternatives, it would be to take the risk out of large scale development by guaranteeing a price it would purchase alternatives for — a price that is profitable, but still lower than the current price of crude. That would take the power away from OPEC.
Alternatives are a joke a myth a way of confusing and diluting the efforts of science and technology. Oil is the engine. We have spent the better part of 100 year investing in what takes us where we want to go. That technology and the infrastructure to find ship produce deliver, and use is not going to change any time soon, unless there is a sudden quantum leap. Even with the quantum leap a 100 year industry is tomorrow going to fold and the new tech just jump into our cars and power them. This kind of thinking is not thinking.
The problem is anti business anti progress environmentalists who have for half a century sought to bring industry and the engine that drives it, to its knees and under the control of those who place the earth on a higher plane than those who inhabit it. We develop what we now have as the source of road power and we do it without the restrictions that have limited our ability to drill everywhere there is oil. Period, no debate. Refineries to refine, everywhere they are needed, now, not 10 years from now.
Anything else in the short run is a pipe dream. People have been trying to solve the mystery of the hydrogen powered car since I was in high school in the fifties, it is now 50 years later and I personally believe despite all the glowing press, we are not any closer to having a delivery system for anything but OIL. So stop with the dead ends, and the dilution of effort and develop what we have now until there is a viable replacement, if ever. Trying to force technology before it’s time is a waste of time and money.