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Fuel up now — while you still can

Posted October 11, 2008

You might have noticed the precipitous drop in prices at gas stations lately (I've seen it close to $3 a gallon today). It's accelerated so much that I've seen variations as much as 20 cents per gallon between local gas stations. It's all a mixed blessing, however, as experts point to the collapse of the global financial markets as the driving force behind oil's decline.

On Friday, oil ended at a scant $77.70 a barrel, or, if you've been keeping score, nearly half of what it was over the summer. We've yet to see much of an impact yet, since the refineries damaged during the hurricane season are just now coming back online (I doubt Chevron or ExxonMobil were in much of a hurry anyway), and many stations in the Southeast are still running on fumes. Even as late as Friday night, when I went to fill up at the Spinx station on North Main Street, only midgrade and premium were available, and several pumps were even offline.

Experts say that it's not necessarily time to buy that Hummer yet. A article I read recently said most drivers are so disenfranchised by the price fluctuations that many don't expect bargain-priced fuel to last long — and with good reason. As crude surged, we got little explanation outside of vague excuses like global tensions and increased Asian demand — two issues that have been around for years anyway.

In the end, you can't look a gift horse in the mouth, and in this economic climate we need every silver lining we can get. We can only hope and pray that the fear mongering on Wall Street and the markets ends and sanity prevails.

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