|
I hate gas prices as much as everyone, but honestly unless you're in a business where gas is vital (landscaping or shipping are two that come to mind) I don't see this being that big of a deal. Doing the math, I use around 12-15 gallons per week, the recent price jumps ($.50 in 2 days) mean that on average, ill be spending a whole $7 more per week on gas. Now if prices continue to rise, it might be more problematic, but if it's just for a month or so, I don't see the big issue (especially considering that gas prices in most of Europe are still much higher than ours).
What worries me more is the knee-jerk reaction of releasing some of the strategic reserves. Releasing more oil won't help the gas situation, especially since the problem with gas is mainly at the refinery point. Also, this is occurring during ever rising profits for the oil industry, which doesn't seem to jive with what should be happening during a real oil shortage (profits should be fairly stable, unless there's some gouging).
|