Remember this summer's fun gas prices? I first paid over $3/gallon back in late February. Austin prices peaked around $3.90 that I can recall, $3.75 for certain. And on the road trip, in remote parts of Utah, we saw prices crest $4.50. Austin was still well above $3 when we got back.
It was sometime in September, around the middle of the month, when I saw the "2" again, paying $2.999/gallon. And prices kept dropping -- $2.82, $2.71, $2.39, $2.12, $2.07. An easy trend to spot, and then -- yes! -- $1.99. The two was gone. I had reason to visit a warehouse store yesterday, not my usual one but one with a filling station, and when I saw the member price -- $1.769/gallon -- I filled up (the car was getting low anyway). Checking later on AustinGasPrices.com, I found that I had happened upon one of the lowest prices in town.
To the pocketbook this is a pleasant thing, sure, but two things keep playing in my mind.
One, even an honest supply/demand curve shouldn't be this volatile, to swing up +100% and then go back down again in just a few months' time. We as a customer base are being played.
Two, it's nice to have the pricing pressure off, but we must not let this distract us as a nation or a world from pursuing alternative energy sources. We need energy, I don't doubt that, but there are other options to explore and develop. And it's better to move forward that direction in the days when the pressure is off than when it will be on again. Lower gas prices give us some breathing space, but this is at best a coffee break, not a sabbatical.
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