Gas Prices on the Verge of Skyrocket

For the first time in 2009, crude oil sales finished above $71 a barrel on the Tuesday stock exchange. Not only is it the highest price fetched this year, but oil hasn't fetched that high a price since November of last year. Prices for the product have risen nearly $15 a barrel since the beginning of May and appear to be headed even higher. CNNMoney has claimed this is do to the dollar loosing ground to the Euro and Pound, while still putting hopes in the economy recovering sooner rather than later.

With this sudden increase in crude oil, we all have seen and felt the price at the pump. Here in Michigan according to The State News, gas prices are actually the highest in the nation at $2.93 a gallon. The price will most likely go up above $3 soon with latest jump of oil prices. This all is, of course, right on the crest of summer. Road trips, which had looked somewhat feasible, are now taking a hit and may even be canceled. I know myself, I have a wedding to attend this weekend, but with it being four hours north, I'm sadly considering not attending, because I just can't afford the $75 of gas it will cost me. I don't want to sound cheap, but like many other Americans right now, I have loans and student debt keeping me from being able to spend that money. Even so, I shouldn't complain, because I do have some sort of a job, at least for now.

I think these past few months (in fact maybe the entire year up to this date), we were under a false sense of hope that gas might now go back up to the historic highs we once had. Last year at this time I had thought I'd never see prices as low as $3 again, but when that mark came and went, and sank to below $2.5, I quickly changed my tune to how we'd never see prices as high as $3 again. How quickly I forget. Or maybe it was I didn't forget, I just didn't want to remember. Either way, I'm now realizing (again), that these prices are here to stay, and hopefully I stage of the grasps of a false-sense-of-hope if prices ever do drop lower for a short period of time.

One last thing, I was listening to the radio the other day and heard a very good point. Many Americans are thankful for the government's mandate to have all cars extremely fuel efficient within the next few years. That would be great, right? Cars getting over 40 miles a gallon would mean we'd spend way less at the pump one would think. But when all this happens, what's going to keep the gas companies from raising prices even further, to make up for the lost money?

Cumbers, Melissa. "Michigan Gas Prices High.", www.statenews.com

Pepitone, Julianne. "Oil Surges Over $71 to &-1/2 Month High.", www.cnn.com