Many people can remember years ago when gas was at $2 a gallon. Now, gas Prices are expected to go up to at least $4 a gallon this summer. Take a look at the article below and leave a post. We want to know what you plan to do this summer to handle the projected increase. Some have talked about public transportation, while others have no choice but to drive. So let us know what you plan to do if anything at all. Also the link below will give you the lowest gas prices in the area, so you can save as much as possible.
Gas prices going up hour-to-hour
Growing unrest in the Middle East means higher prices at the gas pump.
Crude oil prices topped $100 a barrel this week for the first time since fall 2008. Gas prices at many Chambersburg gas stations hovered around $3.30 per gallon Thursday, up more than 10 cents from a week ago.
Rising gas prices -- at least for now -- don't seem to be changing driving habits.
"I still have to go to work. I still have to go to the grocery store," said Jerri Martin, Chambersburg, who was filling up her sport utility vehicle Thursday at the Sheetz on Norland Avenue.
Martin said she likely wouldn't make changes to her driving habits until gas hits $3.50 a gallon.
Jeff Lenard, spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores, said a study done three years ago, prior to $4-a-gallon gas, found the average tipping point for most people was about $3.71 a gallon.
James Wyrick, Chambersburg, is among the nearly 4,500 county residents commuting an hour or longer to work. He plans to spend his work nights in the Baltimore-Washington area, rather than home.
He works in the metro area three days a week as a pharmacist at Johns Hopkins Hospital and as a consultant to 50 hospitals. He called around and found that as a frequent sleeper he can get discounted motel rooms.
"It's cheaper to stay in a room than to pick up the gas cost," Wyrick said. "Sustained (high) energy prices look like they're here to stay this time."
Wyrick on Thursday urgedFranklin County commissioners to continue their fiscal restraint. He said he moved from Maryland to the local area to best deal with the gathering economic storm.
"Most economists agree that $5-a-gallon gasoline is the point which essentially takes the American consumer out of the marketplace," Wyrick said. "That is the silver bullet to the U.S. economy."
Prolonged increases in oil prices would have a ripple effect on the nation's economic recovery.
Higher gas prices mean consumers have less discretionary income. Businesses -- especially those in the transportation or freight sectors -- would have to grapple with higher input costs.
"The rising oil prices, along with the uncertainty in the Middle East, will have a significant impact on the recovery," said John Kooti, dean of the John L. Grove College of Business at Shippensburg University. "The economy is just really starting to recover from the deep recession, and here we go again. Oil prices are going up."
The travel and tourism industry is just getting back on its feet. It's the No. 2 industry behind agriculture in Franklin County and Pennsylvania. County revenue from its motel room tax topped $500,000 in 2010, still down 14 percent from the banner year of 2007.
"You've had a bit of a recovery," said Janet Pollard, county tourism director. "Things tanked in 2008. You could see people weren't traveling."
If gas prices spike and fail to come back down, the county will continue to promote "one-tank trips," she said.
The county and the surrounding region are promoting the 150th anniversary celebration of the Civil War over the next five years. This April, events are scheduled in Greencastle and Chambersburg. "Maybe (vacationers) don't spend a week in a major destination, and maybe they'll see us," Pollard said.
Higher fuel prices will find their way to the supermarket shelves.
"It's a double whammy to farmers because fuel and fertilizer prices go up," said Jack Martin, a Waynesboro area dairyman. "Fertilizer follows petroleum prices. We had that two years ago. Fertilizer is made from petroleum."
Off-road diesel fuel topped $4 a gallon two years ago, and over-the-road diesel approached $5 a gallon. Milk haulers, manure haulers and customer choppers all added a fuel surcharge to their bills. The amount has varied, but it's still there.
"Trouble is, everything we do has to be moved by truck," Martin said. "They have to pass it along. This time the time frame could be longer."
This time, dairy farmers are in a little better position. The amount they are being paid for milk is higher because of milk protein sales in foreign countries.
The price farmers are getting for culled cows is as high as Martin can remember, but the price they pay for feed corn is also as high as he can remember.
All that will change with the weather and movements in the markets.
It's hard to say with any certainty where gas prices are headed.
Lenard said six months ago, no one could have predicted the unrest in the Middle East. He said forecasters last year also predicted a bad hurricane season, which never materialized.
Libya only produces about 2 percent of the world's oil supply, but AAA said as unrest in Egypt began to wind down last week, reports began of escalating anti-government demonstrations in the larger oil producing countries of Iran, Bahrain, Algeria and Yemen.
"It's going to be interesting to see what happens," Kooti said. "Hopefully, this (high oil prices) will not last, but there's no indication of what is going to happen in the oil producing regions, which is the Middle East, with the uprisings and the protests. It's going to have at least a psychological impact on the expectations of what's going to happen to oil prices and supply."
The former president of Shell Oil, John Hofmeister, said previously in December he expects gas prices in the U.S. to hit $5 a gallon by 2012.
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