High Gas Prices

The region's gasoline prices climbed to record highs over the Memorial Day holiday with seemingly no end to increases in sight, AAA Mid-Atlantic reported Tuesday.

Concerns over declining U.S. oil supplies and increasing global demand are likely to keep crude oil prices -- which are driving gas prices -- high in the days and weeks ahead, AAA said.

The holiday weekend provided insight into what lies ahead, AAA Mid-Atlantic Manager of Public and Government Affairs Catherine L. Rossi said. "The Memorial Day weekend is to convenience stores who sell gasoline what 'Black Friday' is to shopping mall-based retailers," Rossi said. "It is typically a big volume weekend that sets the pace for sales for the rest of the season."

Gas prices have increased by a quarter over the past year, while the price of crude oil has more than doubled. The July futures contract for crude is trading around $132 a barrel on Tuesday morning, after hitting a record high price above $135 a barrel last week. Crude prices have been pushed to hit record highs on supply concerns, a weak dollar and increasing global demand for diesel fuel.

I am hoping and praying that the tipping point is near, that as a people, we will actually clamour for alternative power resources.

And to think, mag-pe-people power ang mga tao if gas hit $4/gallon. . . I didn't think we would allow it.

Hubby and I realized how slaves we all are to oil products, in particular gas. Conservation has been key, but to a finite resource such as gas (it will run out!), untangling our dependence on it has become a major thought in our heads these days.

The kids will have to walk home more. My daughter will have to switch to a closer school. I take the bike to the gym and I am considering placing a quiet protest sign "NO TO HIGH GAS PRICES" around my neck while biking. (Well, I don't know about that!) But we opted to pull out my pre-school daughter out of her free preschool sessions to save 3 miles worth of gas a day.

I am hoping to get an electronically-charged bike or scooter. But these things are so small an effort to become free from fossil fuels. In a perfect world, I hope to drive a solar-powered car, instead of scrambling for bio-diesel sources--which will add to the bureaucracy of acquiring it.

In the meantime, Memorial Day here was spent closer to home due to gas prices. When most of the time, people leave the Bay Area to get away on this 3-day week-end with wonderful weather, the big American V8 SUV's just can't be fun when half of the the energy and money goes to filling up.

My family and I spend an afternoon in the bookstore and had an overload of fried onion rings and root beer floats in A&W.