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ODS-Petrodata, which provides market intelligence to the offshore oil and natural gas industry, said it expected a shortage of rigs in the US Gulf this year.

"Based on what we have right now, it appears that drilling contractors and rig owners took a big hit from Rita," said Tom Marsh of ODS-Petrodata. "The path Katrina took was through the mature areas of the US Gulf where there are mainly oil [production] platforms. Rita came to the west where there is a lot of [exploratory] rig activity."

Ken Sill of Credit Suisse First Boston said: "Early reports indicate numerous rigs are missing, destroyed or have suffered serious damage and several companies have yet to report. Rita may set an all-time record."

The US Coast Guard said nine semisubmersible rigs had broken free from their moorings and were adrift.

He added that if Americans could avoid going on "a trip that's not essential," that would be "helpful."

He also issued a directive for all federal agencies to cut their own energy use and to encourage employees to use public transportation.

One of the best things about having a new car could be bad for you. New research finds that much loved "new car" smell is produced by harmful chemicals.

Cheryl Gardner has just purchased a new Nissan Pathfinder. She said the smell that tells her she's driving a new car just doesn't last long enough.

"I love it. It actually stays in the vehicle for a couple of months," she said.

According to a recent study, that pleasurable scent has been linked to harmful chemicals -- volatile organic compound or VOC -- which releases chemicals from glues, paints, and vinyl.

Volatile organic compounds seep out of a vehicle's plastics, glue, vinyl and upholstery, and include some cancer-causing toxins such as styrene, benzene and formaldehyde.

The Australian researchers found that the level of the compounds in new cars were several times higher than levels considered safe for homes and offices.

The full health effects of these compounds is not well known, but some controlled studies have found they can cause headaches, throat or eye irritation, drowsiness and confusion. Studies has also found that prolonged exposure to some of the chemicals can lead to cancer.

"Just as air inside our homes and workplaces is often much more polluted than the air outside, so sitting in a new car can expose you to levels of toxic emissions many times beyond (health guideline) goals," said Steve Brown, head of the CSIRO's air quality control research unit.

Extensive flooding in Port Arthur, Tex., or Lake Charles, La., would cause prices to spike, possibly as high as $6 or $7 a gallon, doubling the widespread assumptions of $3-a-gallon gas that are expected in the aftermath.

Either way, it's going to be disruptive. With refiners shutting down and assuming 4 million barrels per day of capacity is shut in for at least five days, the lost production would amount to 20 million barrels. Gasoline, currently the tightest product, with inventories 500,000 barrels below the five-year average, "runs the greatest risk of tightness and price increases," analysts say. (See: "Rita Recovery May Be More Protracted Than Katrina's.")

"Rita will have a significant impact on petroleum product markets even without significant damage similar to Hurricane Katrina," Merrill Lynch (nyse: MER - news - people ) analysts conclude.

Gasoline prices hit $5.87 a gallon in parts of Georgia, but regional spikes won't become a national trend if Rita packs less wallop than originally feared. The American Automobile Association's daily survey of prices on Friday pegged the national average for regular unleaded gasoline at $2.748 a gallon, $2.918 for midrange gas and $3.025 for premium. The average price for diesel is $2.826 a gallon.

Weather and energy experts say that as bad as Hurricane Katrina hit the nation's supply of gasoline, Hurricane Rita could be worse.

Katrina damage was focused on offshore oil platforms and ports. Now the greater risk is to oil-refinery capacity, especially if Rita slams into Houston, Galveston and Port Arthur, Texas.

"We could be looking at gasoline lines and $4 gas, maybe even $5 gas, if this thing does the worst it could do," said energy analyst Peter Beutel of Cameron Hanover. "This storm is in the wrong place. And it's absolutely at the wrong time," said Beutel.

If Rita hits both the Houston-Galveston area, as well as the Port Arthur-Beaumont region near the Texas-Louisiana border, that could take out more than 3 million barrels of capacity a day, according to Bob Tippee, editor of the industry trade journal Oil & Gas Journal in Houston.

"Before Katrina, the system was already so tight that the worst-case scenario was for a disruption that took 250,000 barrels of capacity out of the picture. That would have been considered a major jolt," said Tippee.

Cliff Evans, oil analyst at the Independent Commodity Information Service, noted that Rita is heading towards the Texas coastline where about a quarter of US refining capacity is based.

'Basically its going to affect the region that was not affected by the last hurricane,' he said.

Evans said that with the storm currently barreling through the Gulf of Mexico, gas prices and not just crude oil should turn higher.

'The Gulf of Mexico produces a substantial amount of crude oil and natural gas. On Monday when we had big up day for natural gas futures, which hit a record high - they were higher on Monday than they were post Katrina,' he said.

The former maths and technology teacher has designed a speed hump which rises up out of the road when a speeding driver approaches.

The offending motorist will feel a small thump as they hit the bump, reminding them to go slow.

Sensors to instruct the hump to raise can be set to react to different speeds, operate at different times and can even be set to ignore speeding emergency vehicles.

The invention could mean the end to driving down a clear road late at night and being forced to break for a series of speed humps. Gywn Harvey, from Wales, said he came up with the idea ten years ago when he accidentally hit a speed hump too fast.

Hurricane Katrina slammed into the heart of the Louisiana energy industry, shutting eight major refineries that together account for about 12% of total U.S. capacity. Four of those refineries have already restarted.

The remaining four, representing 5% of U.S. capacity, could be down for months, the Energy Department warns. Murphy Oil Corp. (MUR) has said it will be months before it can restart its 120,000 barrel a day refinery in Meraux, near Chalmette and also in St. Bernard Parish.

Dwight Bradshaw, senior environmental scientist with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, said last week the Chalmette refinery and ConocoPhillips' (COP) 247,000 barrel a day Alliance refinery in Belle Chasse, La., will take months to restart, though Chalmette could be the first to return.

Meraux could take as long as six months, said Bradshaw, who has interviewed refinery personnel on site and conducted daily flyovers of the refineries as part of his job of assessing the environmental consequences of the storm's impact on energy facilities. Lingering flood waters, limited road access and sustained power outages will delay the plants' restarts, Bradshaw said.

The new service, called OnStar Vehicle Diagnostics, will be featured exclusively in vehicles made by General Motors Corp. It will automatically perform hundreds of diagnostic checks on key operating systems: the engine and transmission, antilock brakes, air bags and OnStar itself.

The vehicle is automatically programmed to send the results through e-mail, along with maintenance reminders based on the vehicle's odometer reading and remaining engine oil life.

The service will be offered free to most 2004 or newer GM vehicles already carrying OnStar. GM expects to have OnStar in all of its vehicles by 2007.

People swallowed hard when gas hit $2 a gallon last year. Now, it has passed yet another horrific milestone. In some parts of the country, people are paying as much as $3 a gallon at the pump. That's just ridiculous. Plus, there's no sign that things are going to get any better.

I wish that the United States would just get on the ball with alternative energy. As much as I'm impressed with the space program, maybe those funding dollars should be redirected into research that would develop other ways of fueling our nation.

I'm also very tired of hearing about how our government is working with Saudi Arabia to try to stop the rising price of oil. I can see those heads of oil-producing countries just laughing as they continue to jack up the cost per gallon. If we would just threaten to stop protecting all those countries, I think we'd see an immediate drop in oil prices.

In the Ford case, NHTSA has received more than 550 complaints of engine fires from the cruise control switch. There have been allegations of three deaths in cases cited in news reports or lawsuits in Iowa, Georgia and Arkansas.

The affected vehicles include: 1994-2002 model F-150s, 1997-2002 Expeditions, 1998-2002 Navigators and 1994-1996 Broncos equipped with factory-installed speed control.

"We have a solution that fixes the problem and we're confident that this is going to be the right remedy," said Ford spokeswoman Kristen Kinley.

Ford said its inquiry found that brake fluid could leak through the cruise control's deactivation switch into the system's electrical components, leading to potential corrosion. The corrosion could lead to a buildup of electrical current which could cause overheating and a fire.

Four major tire makers have announced price increases for this fall, following similar announcements by most manufacturers earlier this year. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has announced three price hikes this year alone as oil nears $70 a barrel, and with prices for steel and natural rubber also rising.

The latest Goodyear hike, a 5 percent to 8 percent increase depending on the tire model, took effect Thursday. So a tire going for $100 could potentially go for $108. The Ohio-based company also increased prices in February and June.

Raw materials typically are 40 percent of the selling price of tire, so percentage increases in the mid-single digits are in line with what companies have to charge to cover costs, said Saul Ludwig, who tracks the industry at KeyBanc Capital Markets in Cleveland.

"In my judgment, the average consumer doesn't appreciate the value in the product," Ludwig said. "More often they'll spend more for a pair of tennis shoes than for a tire that travels 70 mph, hits potholes and protects their life."

Despite the steps by industrialized nations to avert a fuel shortage, analysts warn that long lines at U.S. gasoline pumps and record prices could augur higher oil costs in the months ahead.

"With nearly three months to go until the end of the Atlantic hurricane season, which peaks between mid-September and mid-October, more storms ? both real and metaphorical ? could be on the horizon," Energy Intelligence says on its Web site.

Energy analyst Orrin Middleton of Barclays Capital in London says the price relief was likely temporary because of concerns about refinery capacities.

"The huge rally we got last week shows that it's a product more than a crude problem," he says. "I don't think further OPEC crude is going to alleviate the refinery problem."

The Energy Department reported more than 5,000 calls to its price gouging hotline Thursday from around the country, although officials emphasized there was no way to immediately determine how many of the allegations were valid.

"I went in McDonald's to get lunch, and when I came out, gas at the station across the street was 6 cents higher," said Black Forest resident Evelyn Shinn, who was filling her tank at a BP station on North Academy Boulevard during her lunch break. "I'm not happy at all," she said.