The weird part is the last time it got to $4/gallon oil was $140/barrel. Something doesn’t pass the smell test here....
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
$140/barrel oil was based on speculation. I think many intelligent people saw through the facade. Yes, gas stations jacked prices up above where they are now, but many intelligent people knew it was only temporary.
Today, there are real concerns about meeting longer term demand for oil. Obama’s moratorium is real and nobody knows how soon it will be lifted, especially if Obama is re-elected. Middle east unrest is a genuine thread to oil supplies from some nations. This price increase if based on real fundamentals, unlike the 2008 oil bubble from speculation. High oil prices could be here to stay.
About the only thing I can think of that would bring them down is a Republican Senate and president announcing aggressive plans to open US land and shoreline to oil drilling and shale oil/gas extraction, along with plans to build many more oil refineries and nuclear power plants. That would start oil prices tumbling back down.
Absent that, gas prices that bounce between $3.50 and $5.00 seasonally could well be hear to stay for years or decades.
Obviously, persistent $5.00 gas would create a strong financial incentive to change our behavior. Many of the electorate would demand domestic oil exploitation. Some crue oil alternatives and alternate fuels become price competitive. I’m saying, if we stay on the same course and don’t make any changes to our energy policies, we could see $5/gallon for as long as China and India are ramping up toward first world economies. If they keep going the way they are, they will both pass the USA later this century a the world’s largest economies.
Yeah, I agree. IIRC, oil has been over $100 a barrel before and gas was never this much per gallon.
I wonder if anyone else remembers what it was per gallon last time it was this high for oil.