U.S. gas prices—February 18, 2008

Gas prices jump higher throughout the country.

National retail fuel price averages

Price

Change from last week

Regular gasoline/gallon	$3.04	↑ .08
Diesel fuel/gallon	$3.40	↑ .12

Regional regular gasoline prices

Price

Change from last week

East Coast	$3.05	↑ .07
-New England	$3.04	↑ .03
-Central Atlantic	$3.06	↑ .04
-Lower Atlantic	$3.04	↑ .10
Midwest	$3.05	↑ .10
Gulf Coast	$2.94	↑ .09
Rocky Mountain	$2.96	↑ .02
West Coast	$3.14	↑ .08
-California	$3.19	↑ .08

Source: Energy Information Administration, 2/18/08

Comments

[Steven]

With the gas prices going up, it is becoming ever more painful to drive a car these days.
Since our government is not doing anything about it, it is up to us to use less gas and that may tip the balance of supply and demand in our favor.
So here are some tips to save on gas: (Read it thoroughly)

1. If you drive to work every day see if you can telecommute from home. Or, bring the work home with you and go to work fewer days a week.
2. Try to use public transportation to work.
3. Ask coworkers who live near you if you can carpool with them.
4. Make the smaller trips using a bicycle. (it is good for your health as well). If you do not have a bicycle, you can get one for the price of one fill up. It will pay for its self in a couple of months.
5. Do not look for parking. Just park the car anywhere and walk the rest. Or, pool it into the parking or valley. With these prices it may be cheaper to bite the bullet and pay the few bucks.
6. If you have more than one car, always take the smaller car if you can.
7. If you want to go out for the evening always look for places closest to you and designate one person to pickup everyone.
8. Do not use air conditioning. Open windows.
9. Never fill up the tank. Fill half.
10. Look for routs with the least stops.
11. Drive the car in a way that you need to break the least amount of time. Do not exonerate if you know that you need to stop in a few harder feet.
12. Never drive past 60 mile/hour. After 60 the consumption of gasoline goes up exponentially.
13. If you are in the market to buy a car, get a hybrid and smallest possible engine you can get.

[Nathan]

This is what gets me. The price per barrel in Feb 08 was $118 and gas was 3.09. Now its the same price per barrel and gas is 3.75. What gives?

[Mark]

I agree Jim. How stupid do these HUGE gas comglomorates think we are? They force feed these prices to us and here we are paying $3.59 a gallon when it is the same price per barrel as when gas was selling for $3.09 when will the politicians act?

[john]

Nathan, Mark,
what can we do to bring this to everyone's attention. The media is silent in contrary to when oil prices go up.

[Jacob]

You have to remember that it takes weeks to refine that oil into gas they are still refining oil that cost them 130 a barrel not 99 or 118 or whatever, wait a few weeks. It will go down unless oil goes up again. B/c the oil that they sold to us in Feb at 3.09 was oil that only cost 89 a barrel. You cant think of this as day to day.

[Tony]

Jacob:

Don't be foolish. Big oil passes the cost of a per barrlel increase onto the public as soon as it goes up but waits weeks to pass on the savings useing the same lame excuse you just posted. Which results in Billions of dollars in additional profits for companies that already break the profit records on a yearly basis.

[Lynda]

WHAT GETS TO ME.. When gas was at its highest EVERYTHING went up-groceries, clothing,etc.. Now that gas prices have come down why haven't the prices of other thing come down as well?????