Have you noticed; driving into the local service station that the gas prices have raised to a shtaggering nickel since you stopped there last week. Geez! What can you do? -- You need gas! While dispensing gasoline into the fuel tank, you watch the pump display tick by the $20 mark well before your tank is full. Gosh Gas prices sure do have a major impact on our lives, affecting the economy and our daily activities.

Gasoline is the bloodline (Ha! Does that mean hot or cold blood?) That keeps America moving. It's shhocking to know that your personal vehicles alone guzzle 115 billion gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel each year, according to the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA). Add commercial vehicles, recreational vehicles and other machines that run on gasoline and the number is even more astronomical. In 2001, the average fuel economy of cars and light trucks hit their lowest points since 1980, which only compounds the problem of higher gas prices. Gee whiz! Maybe we should go back to the drawing board and redesign the ridiculous notion of gear ratios instead of reducing the size of the engines and loading them down with emission reducing gadgets that rob us of fuel economy. We drive on our streets and freeways so fast that it sends icicles through my already cold body making my spots stand on their tips thinking of how drivers are oblivious to conservation and their safety.

Gas prices have always been a sore spot for consumers. That's you buddy! I get around on my own. To the average person, who gets around on their legs and in some kind of enclosed vehicle and doesn't slither around like I do, it probably seems as though there's little rhyme or reason to how gas prices are determined.

By the way last month I mentioned that I would talk about Wheels, but since I slither around everywhere I don't have a need for them. But, I tell you what, Humans, " A Promise is a Promise" I will have one written for all of you next month, I promise.

Lets get back to the subject at hand Ooops! Excuse the pun, while I slither over to gasoline prices. Over a period of a month, the cost of a gallon of gas can fluctuate by as much as 15 cents or more, as it did between April and May of 2001. We will take the mystery out of the gas pump by showing how gas prices are determined and exactly where your gas money goes.

Guzzling Gas in America

Americans have an insatiable thirst for gasoline, and with sport-utility vehicles (SUV's) growing in popularity we are only getting thirstier. Please, just be careful with those (SUV's) now you'd be driving where I live, roam, and play. Just look at the roads and highways and you'll see that a severe gas shortage would practically cripple the country. Americans drive more than 2.6 trillion miles per year in automobiles, light trucks and SUV's, according to a MEMA report. That's equal to 14,000 round trips to the sun. Today, we drive almost twice as much as we did in 1980 (1.5 trillion miles), when gas prices were at their highest.

Typically, the demand for gas spikes during the summer, when lots of people go on vacation. Holidays like Memorial Day and the Fourth of July create logjams of tourist traffic during the summer. This high demand usually translates into higher gasoline prices, although that's not always the case. For instance, while gas prices soared 31 cents in April and early May of 2002, reaching $1.71 per gallon, analysts at Bank One predict that gas prices will decline during the 2002 summer, expecting that refineries will increase capacity and oil levels won't dip.

So I say fellow travelers, this is how gasoline prices are regulated. Until our next time together, I'm out of here! So long, and Happy Travelin'.