There’s a group of Lawrence residents who definitely aren’t betting on cheap gasoline prices being around for long.

The city’s new Peak Oil Task Force met for the first time Tuesday with discussions of how the future may include the need for more food to be grown locally and more jobs to be closer to home because fuel prices will be at new highs.

“The price is going to go up again,” said Michael Almon, a member of the city-appointed task force. “What we really need to address as a community is how we can mitigate against those rising prices that will come back again. We need to figure out as a community how we can reduce our dependency on oil.”

Several members on the group talked about the real possibility of gasoline topping $5 per gallon in the foreseeable future and how that may particularly have serious effects for Lawrence.

“This is an unusual community in that about 30 percent of the population commutes outside the city for work,” said new Chamber of Commerce President Tom Kern, who also is a member of the task force. “When gas becomes $5 per gallon, which I’m sure is in our future, how many of those people will move?”

The new task force wasn’t providing any answers at its first meeting. Instead, the 13-member task force only agreed to begin the process of gathering information on the Peak Oil issue. The group also said it plans to develop a report that would include several recommendations on how the city can reduce its dependency on oil and be prepared to respond to higher fuel prices.

A handful of other cities across the country have started similar task forces. Portland, Ore., generally is considered to have the most detailed report on the subject. That report came up with recommendations that contemplated a variety of incentives and taxes to reduce the community’s reliance on automobile travel and food and goods that are transported from far distances.

Peak Oil is a phrase that generally describes the day when worldwide demand for oil outpaces the growth in supply of oil. The term sometimes sparks debate because there are disagreements over how quickly the world will reach a Peak Oil status.

City Commissioner Rob Chestnut, who chairs the task force, said he doesn’t want the group to get bogged down in that discussion. Instead, he just wants the community to recognize that oil is a finite resource and Lawrence will face an oil crunch someday unless changes are made.

“I think we need to ask the basic question of what happens if there is not enough oil available or it becomes astronomically priced,” Chestnut said.

Members of the group are: Scott Allegrucci, director of the Great Plains Alliance for Clean Energy; Almon, a local environmental and energy activist; Rex Buchanan, Kansas Geological Survey; Chestnut; Paul Dietz; Kern; Joe King, an architect; Dean Palos, a professional planner; Dan Wildcat, Haskell Indian Nations University; Scott Zaremba, Zarco 66; Charles Marsh, Kansas University; Paula Phillips, Kansas Emergency Management and Homeland Security; and Nancy Thellman, Douglas County commissioner.