Hmm, I must say I see all of your points of view. I now don't know what to expect. I can see where the oil companies might use any excuse they can to raise prices, but on the other hand is it not truly the supply and demand that determines the price of oil? I also can see where $10 a gallon gasoline (U.S.D.) would give the R&D of alternative fuels a big kick in the paints too, and that would be a very good thing!
After some pondering I have to base my opinion on my past observations. I think about what happen on 9-11. The gas stations all had paid the same cheap rate for the fuel in their tanks yet many gas stations started raising their prices as high as $4.90 right here in Kentucky. It did not matter how much supply we had, what mattered was we had a group of business people taking advantage of a situation full of panic. It got so bad our governor had to step in and threaten to bust the gas station owners for price gouging and then the prices went right back to where they wear on Sept/10/2001. Of course I do believe there was an uptick in oil prices just after 9-11.
I look for fuel prices to go up for the near foreseeable future. How much they go up I can not guess. I just can not vision the world talking about a terrorist / oil producing country on the verge of building a bunch of Nukes not impacting the price we pay at the pump. All the reason they need is a lot of panic.
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Originally Posted by RobertSmalls
I'm going to go with "no". Inventories are high, demand is easily met by current supply, so prices are not going to go through the roof on speculation alone. Now if some nukes get launched and a major, oil-powered war starts, that could create enough demand for us to see sustained high gas prices.
I'm with Frank and Piwoslaw. You need to insulate yourself from gasoline prices and be less dependent on the stuff.
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If "some nukes get launched" I will no longer be as concerned over oil prices!
Such political concerns are a big part of the reason I surf this forum for ideas on how to raise my gas mileage. I'm only up to about 45 MPG right now, but thanks to this site my fuel economy continues to get better.