Trend: Gas Watch

The price of crude oil climbed higher into record territory Wednesday, topping $72 a barrel. The high cost of crude oil, along with seasonal refinery outages, is driving up prices at the gas pump (or so "they" say, as accountability on this issue seems fuzzy as hell to most everybody, including ourpresident!).

The Energy Department’s weekly report on petroleum carried a headline Wednesday, asking "$3 per gallon?" That question has already been answered in Los Angeles and some other parts of the country, where gasoline prices hit the $3 mark this week.

"The bad news is the numbers are going to keep going up. We expect that gasoline over the next few weeks could go, on average, to $3.10, $3.20 a gallon," says spokeswoman Carol Thorpe of the American Automobile Association.


check out GasBuddy.com to keep up with the neighborhood and national price trends.