>> tom: oil prices march toward $100 a barrel in the final week of 2010 trading. but that may not be the only energy price shock. why we could be paying $5 for a gallon of gasoline in the not- too-distant future. you're watching "nightly business report" for tuesday, december 28. this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson.

this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> tom: good evening everyone. thanks for watching. susie gharib is off tonight. energy prices moved higher as temperatures in most of the country remain low. oil rose 49 cents in new york trading today to settle at $91.49 a barrel. during the trading day, oil hit its highest price since the fall of 2008. in just a moment, we'll hear from former shell oil president john hofmeister on why he thinks gas prices are heading for $5 a gallon. he's not the only one who thinks we'll be paying a lot more for energy soon. erika miller talked with experts who predict higher energy prices in the new year. >> reporter: anthony grisanti has been trading oil at the new york mercantile exchange for more than 20 years, so he is used to unpredictable moves in

energy prices. but even grisanti is baffled by the recent rise in gasoline prices at both the wholesale and retail levels. >> to have gasoline, say $3 at the pump for christmas is unheard of. usually the fourth quarter is the time when there's least demand for gasoline. so, i'm very surprised at that. >> reporter: according to aaa, prices at the pump are now averaging $3.05 a gallon nationwide, a 13% increase in three months. blame rising crude prices, which have traded at two year highs for most of december. morningstar's allen good says the rally is being driven by strong energy demand from asia. >> despite small increases here in the u.s., a lot has been driven by china and emerging markets. so, while we really haven't seen any additional production capacity come online the past two years, we have seen demand recover to levels seen in 2008, when oil prices were about $90 per barrel. >> reporter: the big debate is where energy prices head from here. since september, crude has rallied from the mid-70s to above 91 a barrel.

some traders think oil will soon top $100. >> i think probably about $110 or maybe $115 could be the high. but then you have to take in the factors-- is the economy strong enough to sustain $115 crude oil? and we'll find out when the time comes. i don't think it is at this point. >> reporter: but if the u.s. economy really heats up, some experts think crude could hit a new all-time high. >> if the u.s. gets back on track and returns to economic levels before the recession, and demand of oil follows, we really could be in that tight market where the same conditions that drove oil prices to 150 in 2008- - could exist in 2011. >> reporter: another factor that could help push up gasoline prices is strong demand. motorists bought almost 5% more gas in the week leading up to christmas. but some analysts caution that with prices at more than $3 a gallon, drivers may start to cut back. erika miller, "nightly business report," new york.

>> tom: here are the stories in tonight's n.b.r. newswheel: blue chip stocks edged higher as cold weather in the northeast lifted oil prices and energy shares. the dow gained 20 points, the nasdaq lost four and the s&p 500 rose a point. it was another light volume day of trading, but a bit more than yesterday. just over a half billion shares on the big board. 1.1 billion on the nasdaq. despite reports saying people increased their holiday spending this year, consumers are feeling less confident about the economy. research group the conference board says its consumer confidence index fell to 52.5 from a revised 54.3 in november. a reading of 90 indicates a healthy economy. it's not been reached since the recession began three years ago. still ahead, our "word on the street" is "technology." gregg greenberg from thestreet.com joins us with

three tech stocks expected to take off in 2011. normal is once again in sight at airports along the east coast. thousands of stranded passengers are heading home as airlines dig out from the christmas blizzard. as darren gersh reports, when it comes to airport snow removal, speed and technology are in high demand. >> reporter: when you're standing here looking at this, you understand why airports spend $50 million a year on heavy duty snow removal equipment. or more accurately, snow removal technology. computer programmed machines like these cost up to $800,000 and can clean a two-mile long runway in four minutes. >> airports like to travel down at anywhere from 25 to 45 miles per hour with these vehicles. it's a very efficient way to clean the snow from the runway. >> reporter: if that's true, why did so many people end up sleeping in airports last weekend? it wasn't a lack of snow removal

so much as the wind howling for hours at up to 60 miles per hour-- that made this blizzard so powerful. >> i think the winds really increased the impact that we felt due to the fact that it created a lot of blowing and drifting of snow. >> reporter: in white-out conditions, snow removal crews can't operate. and it isn't enough to clear a runway the way you shovel your walk. planes have to land on bare pavement, and airports carefully measure runway friction. the aviation war with winter is becoming increasingly sophisticated. even something as simple as a plow is now made with more flexible, lighter weight materials. and airports are demanding cheaper, more powerful machines capable of clearing thousands of tons of snow in a matter of hours. >> the development of snow removal equipment in airports over the years is to become more sophisticated, to do the job faster, and with less personnel. >> reporter: with better

engineering-- and some luck-- that means you'll spend less time here. and more time here. darren gersh, "nightly business n. >> tom: like your orange juice cold? really cold? it was too cold this morning for orange crops in florida. for the second time in two weeks, an overnight freeze hit citrus groves, coating fruit with ice. florida's citrus industry is worth $9 billion, squeezing up 75% of the country's orange crop and 40% of the world's orange juice. analysts say it's too early right now to know exactly how much damage was done by mother nature's low temps. the weather is predicted to get warmer in the next few days, but growers say they're worried about future frosts, which could really damage their crops.

>> tom: as erika mentioned, pump prices have jumped more than 10% since labor day. this week an opec oil minister said the world can handle $100- a-barrel oil. and our next guest says get ready for gasoline at $5 a gallon. john hofmeister is a former president of shell oil. he's the founder of citizens for affordable energy. >> he join us us tonight. john, welcome to nightly business report. >> thank you. >> you predict $5 a gallon by 2012. why so high? >> all the conditions which led to $5 gasoline in california in 2008 have returned. except they've returned under a different setted of

circumstances. now we have more asian growth and demand for crude oil than ever in history. our economy is recovering, our demand is back to where it was basically in 2008. combine the asian demand with the fact that in this country we have done nothing. we learned no lessons from the 2008 high price period. in fact, we've gone the opposite direction. we've put a moratorium on drilling. we lifted the moratorium on drilling in the gulf of mexico, but granting no permits. the secretary of the interior has moved the next five year leasing plan to 2017. this administration has basically said we're not going to do oil. it's very difficult to do coal as well. >> tom: john, you talk about supply and demand there. demand from asia especially demand from the united states as the economy heats up. what about the supply issue? america, as you know relys on foreigners to feed our oil appetite. 60% of our oil supply is

imported wha. are the policy that is need to be put in place over the next two years to change this? >> well, the first thing that should be done is learn from history. we use to produce 10 million barrels a day in this country. now we're at 7 and headed to 6. >> tom: is the supply underground to get at? >> absolutely. it's not just the gulf of mexico. it's in north dakota, it's the oil shale in colorado. it's the reserves off the coast of alaska, which has just been taken away from the industry to pursue. it's the east coast. it's the eastern gulf of mexico. there's all kinds of reserves that nobody is allowed to touch. i would say to the president, why don't we go back to where we came from? let's go back to producing 10 million barrels a day. that would at least give us 50% of our domestic supply and by the way create about 3 million jobs if we would go that direction. >> tom: john, you mentioned $6 in california.

it wasn't long ago that the national price was $4.