Gas prices

We just saw gas off the freeway for $2.75 entering New Mexico.

On a road trip, and generally in life, gas prices matter - a lot. Currently they are about 48% of our daily budget if it is a heavy driving day. I remember when I first got a car, at 16 years old, gas prices were $1.10 and even then my dad would reminisce about when prices were at $0.35 a gallon.

Since first starting this post, which was done blogging while driving via the iphone, we have seen prices as low as $2.52/gallon. What is most annoying is that oil prices have fallen over 50% since their summer highs of $147 per barrel. While gas reached its peak at $4.11 a gallon at that time, we have certainly not seen gas prices fall by 50%. OPEC's actions as a cartel are both frustrating (because they collaborate to artificially maintain high oil prices) and would be considered illegal if they were US based companies.

Given that even at current oil prices of $75 a barrel, oil is still almost quadruple what it was 6 years ago. Let's hope that gas prices reflect the drop in oil and that oil prices continue to drop - especially considering that both oil demand and consumption is down!!