BOISE_ Gas jumped by 26 cents over the last month in Idaho. Some fuel market insiders say by Christmas, driving will cost you more than $3.30 for a gallon of regular gas.

That has many consumers wondering why our nation isn't pursuing alternative fuels. Some economists say even though the prices are again spiking, alternative fuels aren't an easy way out of paying more at the pump.

"At freeway speed, we're averaging 53 miles per gallon," said Tom Schmidt as he pulled his tiny "Smart car" into a parking lot. Schmidt had the first smart car in Idaho.

At just eight feet long, it isn't much bigger than his vanity plate, ROLRSK8, suggests. However, with the price of gas, the car's size has been a blessing because it's so much more fuel efficient.

"It doesn't work for everyone," he said of the two-seater car, but for most commuters, "It's definitely the best alternative out there, more bang for your buck."

Right now, most drivers are shelling out a lot of bucks to fill up.

"If you listen to the prognosticators it's going to be four dollars a gallon soon," said Steve Gledhill as he filled up at a local station.

Suzie Bell was filling up, too, "I'm worried! I mean I hate spending money on gas like this!"

So CBS 2 News asked them what they thought we could do?

"I don't know how we're going to get out of it but we have to get ... some alternate fuels," said T.J. Jones.

"Some more oil and gas exploration [and] alternative fuels," agreed Gledhill.

That's a common answer, but packing away the gas pump isn't quite that easy.

"There's a big hurdle you have to get past before you can switch to an alternative fuel because you can't simply just take the infrastructure that has been developed to deliver gasoline and use it to deliver the alternative fuel," said Boise State Economics Professor Don Holley.

Holley says on top of that, oil is still the cheapest fuel out there, and that gives gasoline producers a big edge if it has to come up against another fuel source.

"If it looks like we're on the verge of developing an alternative fuel, petroleum and gasoline is so inexpensive to produce that OPEC and any of these other countries can compete with practically any alternative fuel that we come up with," said Holley.

That's why Holley says those technologies are nice to think about, but they're still a long way off.


"50 years from now we'll all become nostalgic about gasoline driven automobiles but not in the next 10-15 years," he said.

In the mean time, Schmidt and others driving their tiny town cars are still paying those high prices, but for a lot less.

"I can go to the gas station and it still costs me only about 20 bucks to fill up because my tank is all of six gallons," said Schmidt. And that six gallons can stretch a lot farther in a Smart car.

AAA says there is some good news for the rest of us. The rise in prices has slowed slightly over the past few days. However, people are still looking for ways to cut back.

The only smart car dealer in Idaho sold out of all ten smart cars they had, and expect to get more in the next week.