This week, I'll be taking a look at what communities and individuals are doing as a response to high gas prices. As T. Boone Pickens said a few weeks ago at the Energy Capital Forum, it's only when gas prices are high that consumers recognize that the world (or at least the U.S.) does not have access to an abundance of oil. “The lower the price goes, the more it sends a signal to the consumer, ‘We have plenty of gasoline. Go ahead, use all you want, be as wasteful as you want to.’ If the price goes up, they become much more sensitive to price,” Pickens said. Here we go... Day One: Gas is so expensive that school buses are cutting down on the number of stops they are making. Yes, the number of people riding public transportation may increase as a result of high gas prices, but many schools are cutting bus routes and asking kids to walk further to get to their bus stops. According to The Los Angeles Times, the Northshore School District in Seattle has cut eight bus routes. In the South, Texas A&M has cut its bus route No. 6 due to high maintenance costs (this information brought to you by Oil and Gas Investor's summer intern, A&M student Meredith Cantrell). In the Midwest, parents in Bonneville, Idaho are worried that their children may be put in harm's way when they walk to bus stops that are further from their homes. The irons are being thrown in the fire already, and the school year hasn't even begun... –Lindsay Goodier, Online Editor, OilandGasInvestor.com; www.OilandGasInvestor.com; lgoodier@hartenergy.com