Imagine $15 Per Gallon for Gas
That Is, If You Can Even Get It...
"I can't imagine anyone here wanting to spend another $30 billion to be there (Iraq) for another 12 years." -Paul Wolfowitz, February 2003.
Gas Prices Climbing Toward $5 Per Gallon
Hawaii is $4.50 per gallon
CHICAGO (CBS) ? At one time, $5 per gallon gas seemed like a far-fetched idea, but that is no longer the case.
As of Monday, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in the Chicago area is $4.11, compared with $3.71 a month ago, and about $3.10 a gallon at this time a year ago.
Some experts say $5 per gallon gas is possible by Memorial Day-or sometime in summer. Others caution that reaching that mark is unlikely over the next six weeks. In Chicago, the prices keep rising to near-record levels?with no relief in sight.
The Lundberg Survey says the national average for a gallon of regular unleaded as of Monday was $3.76. That is up 19 cents since March 18, and up 91 cents since this time last year.
The sharply rising prices hearken back memories of the summer of 2008.
That year, oil prices were driven well above $100 per barrel, and in June of that year and gas prices were well over $4 a gallon. The highest average record price was $4.34 per gallon, set July 2008.
No one is eager to break that record. But with no end in sight to the turmoil in the Middle East, analysts say we?re likely to do just that ? and just as holiday travelers hit the highways for Memorial Day weekend