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By Staff Reporter
Friday, March 24, 2006 - Updated: 20:55:56 GMT
WASHINGTON, March 24 (Reuters) - If the price of crude oil ever jumps to $100 a barrel and sends gasoline costs soaring, you're better off living in New York City than just about anywhere else, according to a study released on Friday.
New York tops the list of ten American cities that could survive, at least economically, if oil roared to $100.
That's the conclusion of the online healthy living company SustainLane, which looked at which cities could maintain their quality of life and economy if faced with skyrocketing pump prices. The price of crude oil accounts for about half the cost of making gasoline.
The 10 U.S. cities that could best deal with such a crisis are: 1. New York, 2. Boston, 3. San Francisco, 4. Chicago, 5. Philadelphia, 6. Portland, Oregon, 7. Honolulu, 8. Seattle, 9. Baltimore and 10. Oakland, Calif. The company said its survey found that good public transportation systems were most important to allow people to commute to jobs and schools and shop if it became too expensive to use cars.
"A solid public transportation system will get workers to the office and shoppers to the mall, regardless of the price of oil (and) provide critical insurance against the overt threat of sky-high oil prices," said Warren Karlenzig, chief strategy officer of SustainLane.
Other factors affecting living and economic conditions included a city's access to locally grown food and the availability of wireless networks for telecommuting.
The survey focused on expensive oil and gasoline for transportation, rather than costly energy used for heating.
U.S. oil on Friday traded around $64 a barrel, far from its highest price ever of almost $71. However, some energy experts believe $100 oil is possible if a terror attack caused a major disruption in crude exports from giant OPEC producer Saudi Arabia.
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