Oil Prices

If you haven't noticed, it has been a little cheaper to fill up at the gas station for the last few weeks. According to the US Energy Information Administration, the current national average cost for a gallon of gasoline is $3.299. That's down about a nickel from the previous week and around seven cents lower than this time last year. It doesn't look like this is just a temporary blip either because there's a strong possibility that Saudi Ara

At least one author is warning consumers not to be fooled by relatively steady gas prices and prognostications of plentiful petroleum. Richard Heinberg, in his book Snake Oil: How Fracking's False Promise of Plenty Imperils Our Future is warning people that any prediction that the world has staved off the prospect of diminishing returns on continued oil drilling is inaccurate, and that the recent increase in

It's just one in a laundry list of factors, but more fuel-efficient cars could make a difference in lowering oil prices dramatically to half their present levels, plunging to $50 a barrel by the end of the year. That's what Gulf Oil CEO Joe Petrowski is predicting in a new interview on CNBC's Squawk Box, though he is quick to point out that a halving of oil prices doesn't necessarily translate to a halving of fuel prices. And, as CNN reports, Danny King

Tonight's third and final presidential debate is scheduled to focus on foreign policy. But in doing so, President Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney will likely address a decidedly domestic issue – gas prices.

It has always been the habit of the party that doesn't occupy the White House to blame various ills on the party that does. Especially in the past few years when it has come to gas prices, the party-in-waiting has blamed the POTUS for "pain at the pump." We're not taking sides here – Republicans are doing it to Obama now, just like Democrats did it to Bush. Unfortunately for their arguments, the President has about as much control over the price of oil as he does over the price of bread; i

In 2008, when Democrats were suggesting President Bush was causing America's then-high gas prices, Fox News went to the mat to support their Commander in Chief, repeatedly explaining why the President can't really control gas prices. Media Matters has collected some of these clips into a flashback video (which you can find below) and it's a good history lesson at a time when gas prices are again near the top of the list of political quote bombs being thrown at the current President. The issue is

How's this for bold? Congresswoman Michell Bachmann, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination who won the Ames Straw Poll last weekend, has just stated that one thing we'd get with a Bachmann Administration is – ready? – cheap gasoline. According to Politico she said:

In early May of 2011, the national average price of gasoline in the United States hit exactly $4 a gallon before falling to the current level of $3.56. However, if predictions from Barron's hold

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (aka OPEC) is looking forward to a record-setting 2011. Due to oil prices that have hovered around the $110-per-barrel mark, OPEC is projected to rake in some $1 trillion in revenues this year.

This may sound surprising, but Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal has gone on record saying he wants the price of oil to decrease. Why's that you ask? It's all about the long-term game, says the Saudi Royal Family's stock market and real estate magnate. In a recent interview with "CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS," Al Waleed admits:

This may sound surprising, but Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal has gone on record saying he wants the price of oil to decrease. Why's that you ask? It's all about the long-term game, says the Saudi Royal Family's stock market and real estate magnate. In a recent interview with "CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS," Al Waleed admits:

Energy industry executives expect continued volatility in the price-per-barrel of oil for the remainder of 2011, with 64 percent predicting that crude prices will exceed $121 per barrel, according to results from the 9th Annual Energy Survey conducted by the KPMG Global Energy Institute.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is an independent, multi-government group formed out of the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. The Agency forecasts oil production and monitors international oil markets and energy sectors. Just five years ago, the IEA rather confidently predicted that oil production would rise to 120 million barrels per day by 2030. Well, there's been a change in outlook.

Moody's Investors Services, a credit rating agency that performs international financial research and analysis on commercial and government entities, has boosted its outlook for the global integrated oil and gas sectors from "stable" to "positive." In a report released on April 5th, the credit rating agency cited the idea that soaring oil prices will "remain strong well into 2012" as one of the factors that contributed to the ratings change. Moody's report states:

With summer just a few precious months away, most Americans are already bracing for some of the steepest fuel prices in years. According to the Associated Press, unrest in places like Libya has seen the average price tag on a gallon of gasoline rocket skyward by 38 cents per gallon, or around 15 percent, since February 15. In fact, the price per a barrel of Zach Bowman

Back in April of 2010, the Deepwater Horizon burst into flames and sank into the sea. For months, clean-up crews worked to contain the oil that spewed out at a rapid rate. In early May, President Obama announced that no additional deepwater drilling efforts would com

With gasoline prices soaring, commuters who rely upon public transportation can now save even more cash than before, according to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). On March 8th, U.S. gas prices hit an average of $3.50 a gallon, but individuals who travel by bus or commuter rail don't need to worry about filling up their tanks.

Do you remember 2008, when the cost of gas in the U.S. jumped to levels people just weren't ready for? When gas prices soared to $3.50 an above that year, we saw the U.S. public panic, and some changed their car-buying habits (for a while, at least).

If you're interested in hearing how the turmoil in North Africa and the Middle East is connected to the recent spike in gas prices, we hope you've got an hour to spare. That's how long it'll take to listen to today's Diane Rehm Show, which is a great "where are we now" piece on a lot of the factors that connect the demonstrators in Libya with Saudi Arabia, the U.S. gas tax with biofuels and more.