I paid $2.82 a gallon at the pump yesterday. I’ve paid as much as $3.09 over the Labor Day weekend last year, right after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In the Scotland last year i paid £1.09 a liter (or $6.79 USD a gallon). If another Katrina or Rita sweeps through the Gulf Coast oil infrastructure that’ll push gas to $4.00 a gallon this summer.
Thankfully, I have a Honda Civic. It gets 33 MPG city and 37 MPG highway, though I’ve gotten as much as 40 highway. I did predict that gasoline would reach 2.50 and 2.75 by Christmas of 2004. I was off by a few months. It was 2.49 when we returned from Scotland last year and 2.79 when we returned from Ireland this year. We didn’t rent a car, but gas prices in Ireland were around € 1.17 per liter ($5.32 USD per gallon). I’ll make a prediction that gasoline will be above $3/gal come November.
If the Republicans are really worried that they will have huge losses in Congress, they will work hard to bring gas prices down. I’ll even make another prediction. Gasoline will go above $4 a gallon in 2007-2008 in the lead up to the presidental elections. We will still have disruptions.What has happened in the last few years are really hiccups in the oil supply. If we have any major disruptions, there is no telling how high gasoline will get. It could spike as much as $6 or $7 a gallon.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. Americans are energy hogs, even me with my Civic am still an energy hog. Americans should learn to conserve all kinds of energy resources, not just gasoline, but coal and natural gas. We can still have a high standard of living, but it does require a big change.