Gas Prices Hit Highest Peak

Once again we hit that part of the year, and it never matters what president is in office. why? Cause some rip offs happen every year. Now watch when it gets closer to family time. Meaning the holidays. The prices for gas will hit a record low. This has been happening since before I can remember. And you know what? It’s never gonna stop, cause they need you to travel, and spend. So that’s when they drop the prices to help people make it affordable to buy presents and etc. Obama man I thought you could save us from the B.S. but like I said earlier, so rip offs happen every year no matter what. Cause no matter who is in office there are to many money hungry evil people in the world. I guess that’s what Micheal jackson, and Obama had in common. ( CHANGE )

Retail gasoline prices chugged higher Friday to a new peak for the year, forcing consumers to dig deeper into already-thin wallets to pay for fuel.
At the same time, natural gas prices also were moving up again and have now climbed 16 percent in the past two months — just in time for furnace season to kick in.

The worst part: Supplies of oil and gas are plentiful. In fact, storage points for gas are so jammed, producers are running out of places to put it and crude supplies are well above average levels.

Gasoline prices are now up 17 straight days after climbing 0.4 cents overnight to $2.695 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Services. That is the highest price since Oct. 26, 2008.

Prices are up 5.9 cents from a week ago and 14.8 cents from a year ago.

The average retail price for gas was $1.686 a gallon in December. Today’s price will tack about $50 a month on to the monthly gas cost for the typical customer compared with then. It comes at a time when unemployment is at a 26-year high.

“It’s a wet blanket on the consumer. It’s something visible you see,” said economist Ken Mayland of ClearView Economics.

Oil prices that skyrocketed to $147 a barrel a barrel in July 2008 helped push the economy into recession to begin with, he said.

“Can high oil prices shut down the economy? Well, clearly the answer is yes,” he said.

The reason for the increase at the pump is because oil prices have been on the rise, going from $65 a barrel as recently as August to $82 last week. A $17-per-barrel increase is worth about 40 cents a gallon.

A year ago, gasoline prices were plummeting as the financial crisis and recession took hold, and demand for oil and gasoline tumbled sharply.

Oil has been moving higher on signs that the economy is improving and a weaker dollar. The Commerce Department said Thursday that the U.S. economy grew at a 3.5 percent annual pace in the third quarter, the best showing in two years and breaking four straight quarters of declines.

Still, supplies of gasoline, heating oil and diesel fuel also remain well above normal.

Meanwhile, the dollar has fallen to nearly a 14-month low against the euro. Since oil is largely bought and sold in dollars, investors holding stronger currencies can buy more crude for less.

The dollar rose on Friday, and crude fell sharply. There was also a dour consumer spending report.

Benchmark crude for December delivery fell $2.87 to settle at $77 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $2.41 to settle at $79.87 on Thursday and has traded near $80 a barrel all week.

Natural gas fell 1.7 cents to settle at $5.045 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil fell 7.31 cents to settle at $1.9811 a gallon. Gasoline for November delivery fell 7.6 cents to settle at $1.9432 a gallon.

In London, Brent crude for December delivery fell $2.84 to settle at $75.20 on the ICE Futures exchange.

Associated Press writers Pablo Gorondi in Budapest and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.

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