The 2008 Cadillac Escalade EXT SUV weighs 7,200 pound (3.5 tons), has a 403 hp, 6.2 litre V-8 engine, gets less than 15 miles (4 miles per litre) to a gallon of petrol and the tank is 31 gallons or 119 litres. At today’s UK petrol price of £1.17 per litre it would cost £140 to fill from empty or $270 USD. Petrol is slightly cheaper in the USA so it would only cost $124 to fill there. This behemoth stands an imposing 6’ 7” in height and is almost 6’ 3” in length. The 476 mile range to a tankfull beats my Mitsubishi by almost 100 miles but mine requires only 40% as much fuel to fill.

Small wonder then why America’s love affair with SUV and so-called “light” trucks such as these is coming to an end as petrol reaches $4 per gallon. (We pay over $8 a gallon in the UK so please stop your whingeing.) Yesterday, GM, the largest producer of trucks in the world announced the permanent shutting of four plants around the US and Mexico. While sales dropped 22% in the most recent quarter, the public is wising up to the realisation that even a “hybrid” SUV truck will only increase efficiency to 20 mpg and the reality is this is not merely a short term sales drop.

It is a symbol of where future gas prices will likely be. While most believe we are in the midst of a speculative price run-up (oil today sits at $127 a barrel for light sweet crude, the kind that is refined into petrol at out pumps), the reality is supplies are being squeezed and demand continues to grow.

Airlines are suffering because Jet A has, according to CNBC, risen 17% in one month and 98% since last year, so entire fleets of poor fuel performance jets are being sold or mothballed in the Arizona desert to help carriers survive. Yesterday the FAA reported that nine major US airlines were in financial danger and service would likely be cut and become much more expensive to dozens of cities.

Bargain Irish-based EU airline RyanAir, an industry darling for the last decade, announced it would struggle to break even, whilst two condors currently doing the merger mating dance – Delta and Northwest lost $10.5 billion dollars separately in the 1st Quarter of 2008.

It amazed me to walk around the US Capitol building in Washington and see the parking spaces of members of Congress filled with these behemoth SUVs. They have lived in a lobbyist bubble the last seven years and it is small wonder they are having such problems now.

The Bush Administration relaxed EPA mileage requirements and here we are. The US government once bailed out Chrysler. It is unlikely to do so again. So here is yet another piece of memorabilia for the George W. Bush library.