Higher and Higher!

Today the CNN-Money Headline reads, "Gas Hits All-time High". Wasn't that yesterday's headline? I think I've seen that headline most days in the past few months and it is starting to get OLD!

The article states:


$4-a-gallon gas -- The AAA survey showed that 33 states and the District of Colombia have an average gas price above $4 a gallon.

Alaska has replaced California as the state with the highest gas prices. Drivers in Alaska pay an average of $4.623 for a gallon of gas. Californians pay $4.583 on average for a gallon, and Hawaiians pay $4.408.

The state with the lowest gas price is Missouri, where a gallon of gas averages $3.862.

Diesel prices slipped to $4.762 a gallon from $4.764 the day before.

According to a survey from Consumer Reports last week, 77% of Americans blame the government for high gas prices, compared with 75% who blame oil companies and 70% who blame foreign oil producers.

Surging gas prices have prompted many drivers to change their habits. Nearly 31% said that they now walk or ride bicycles more. And 16% said they were riding public transportation more often.

Last week, AAA reported that it expects the number of Americans traveling during the Fourth of July holiday travel period to decline 1.3% to 40.45 million drivers versus 41 million last year.



So are there are 222% of us voting? ;) Looks like 70% of us are placing blame somewhere and know that *someone* is up to no good!

The question didn't ask about oil speculators, however. They didn't have any percent there pointing to the artificial factors raising the gas prices. Some say its all supply and demand, but with the prices going higher and higher, and more people walking, car-pooling, biking, and using mass transit, how can the demand be up? Fewer people are flying the less-than-friendly skies these days and fewer people are going on holidays via the automobile, opting for "staycations" closer to home.

Where is this "demand" coming from exactly? Is it only happening here?

I obviously have more questions than answers, but this whole idea that *we* are driving the price up is seriously flawed.

I wonder when this will end and if we will ever see the lower prices in gas that we had only a year or two ago. Are those days long gone? It seems any small break in prices brings huge sighs of relief. My fear is that they will be able to keep the prices artificially high now and so long as gas is under four bucks per gallon, most people who will be so happy that "at least the prices are down from what they were!" How do we know what prices *should be* anyway?

I guess I should feel lucky since around these parts gas is still lower than it is nationally, but I know its only a matter of time before the "high" goes up and so do the gas prices where I live.