AAA: Gas Prices at All-Time High

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I know that there are a lot of these gas stories, but that is one of the main topics around the U.S. They are filed in Energy crisis. MT

AAA: Gas Prices at All-Time High ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- Gas prices have surged in the past 12 months, experiencing their biggest dollar increase in the past 30 years, according to a survey conducted for AAA.

Self-serve regular, unleaded gasoline averaged $1.54 per gallon nationwide, according to AAA's March Fuel Gauge Report released Tuesday. The next highest price ever recorded by AAA was $1.38 per gallon in April 1981, though that figure is not adjusted for inflation.

The average price of regular gas is up 17.6 cents per gallon since Feb. 15. Prices have increased 57.3 cents since last March when the nationwide average was 97 cents per gallon -- the biggest swing since AAA began tracking prices in the early 1970s.

The AAA survey, which takes into account prices from tens of thousands of stations across the United States, echoes findings from the Lundberg Survey, released last Sunday.

In its survey of 10,000 stations, the Calfornia-based Lundberg found that prices had reached $1.59 per gallon.

According to the AAA survey, self-serve mid-grade now averages $1.63 per gallon, up 17 cents from February. Self-serve premium averages $1.69, rising 17.6 cents since last month.

Gas prices were most expensive in the West, where self-serve regular unleaded averaged $1.61 per gallon, up more than 18 cents from last month. The least expensive prices were in the southeast, where self-serve regular averaged $1.49, also up more than 18 cents from last month.

The International Energy Agency reported last week that the United States and the world's other richest countries have depleted their oil inventories to the lowest levels seen in four years.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is worried about recent price volatility, and analysts now expect the group to ease some of the production cuts that it made in 1998 and 1999 at its March 27 meeting in Vienna.

The survey was conducted for the AAA by Oil Price Information Service, a New Jersey-based industry tracker.

The U.S Energy Information Administration's Motor Gasoline Price Survey recorded similar findings on Monday. The EIA reported an average price of $1.53 per gallon of regular unleaded gasoline, up more than 10 cents from Feb. 28 and up nearly 60 cents from 89.4 cents on March 8, 1999

http://www.newsday.com/ap/business/ap648.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), March 14, 2000

Answers

To say that today's gas price is at an all time high "except for inflation" is like saying that Dolly Parton is like Twiggy except for you-know-what. How can one ignore l9 years of inflation with a flip "except"? Point of fact is that, in today's dollars, we paid $2.50 for gas in l98l.

-- alex (cognitiveone@yahoo.com), March 15, 2000.

To say that today's gas price is at an all time high "except for inflation" is like saying that Dolly Parton is like Twiggy except for you-know-what. How can one ignore l9 years of inflation with a flip "except"? Point of fact is that, in today's dollars, we paid $2.50 for gas in l98l.

-- alex (cognitiveone@yahoo.com), March 15, 2000.

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