Gas Prices Jump To Almost $3.00 Per Gallon This Week

The past couple of weeks the price of gasoline has jumped, here in Central Texas, almost 20 cents per gallon. Today, when I drove by a local convenience store where I usually buy gasoline, the price was up to $2.87 cents per gallon for regular unleaded. I remember about one month ago hearing several experts talking about why gas prices were going up so fast and each one of these experts said that the recent increases were just part of a seasonal pattern because U.S. oil refineries were switching over from a winter blend of gas to one that is better suited for summer. These experts claimed that the price a gas would be going down once summer arrived.

I certainly hope these gas experts are correct and gas starts a move to the downside in the upcoming weeks because for those of us that depend on our car to help us earn a living, the past couple of months have been very financially draining. In my work, I drive about 140 miles per day and the daily cost of gasoline has increase from $10 per day in January of 2007 to almost $17.00 per day last week. When you think about the number of other people, like myself, that need to drive to earn a living, that extra $7 per day really adds up and while folks like me are pouring extra money into our gas tanks, we are also spending less money on other retail items that help out the U.S. economy.

I have thought for a long time now that the oil business is less a supply and demand one than a racket that is control by a few huge oil producing countries around the world. So called U.S. allies in the Middle East seem to be getting even richer than they already were on the backs of the U.S. consumer and they will eventually damage our economy, as well. Right now several Democratic presidential candidates are proposing some kind of "windfall profits tax" on large U.S. oil companies like Jimmy Carter did back in the 1970's. While this idea might make some Americans feel better, it will not stop the problem of increasing gas prices because the real problem does not reside in the offices of U.S. oil companies, but in Middle Eastern countries that control the supply and demand of oil that reaches the world market.

There is a positive side to higher gas prices and that positive effect is that more and better forms of energy will be invented and reach the marketplace. When gas prices were under $1.00 per gallon very little research was conducted into finding different forms of enery like "wind power" and created fuel from crops like corn. In the past few months there has been much talk about petroleum alternatives like "Ethanol" and "BioDiesel". Also the sale of "Hybrid Automobiles" are on the rise, as well. Over time, if "OPEC" does not control the price of their oil products better, the free market will do it for them by creating new sources of energy that don't have to be pumped out of the ground by fair weather friends like some U.S. allies in the Middle East.