Results tagged “oil”

As the busiest travel day of the year - Wednesday - approaches, Chicagoans look like they're going to be blessed by two things: good weather and lower gas prices. While Chicago has had the highest average gas price in the nation the last few years, the nation's gas price drop has reached us. So low, in fact, that some stations have regular unleaded actually below the current national average of $1.98. The lower prices come as the price of a barrel of oil has dropped from $147 a barrel in July to under $50 a barrel currently, as close to a silver lining as you'll find in the current economic crisis. Though this paragraph from the AP story certainly got our attention: "Some 'peak oil' adherents view the theory as an incentive to work harder on alternative energy. Others claim it's too late for that, and forecast an apocalyptic future in which industrial society and the global marketplace give way to local micro-economies with backyard farms, abandoned malls and marauding hordes." Um...Happy Holidays, everyone!

With the price of oil at $67 a barrel, gas prices continue to drop, down to an average of $3.22 per gallon here in the Chicago area and they could reach as low as $2.80 a gallon here and $2.50 nationwide by the end of the year. But prices might not drop much further as OPEC is looking to take as many as two million barrels per day off the market to slow the current trend. And even though the recent dramatic price drop has resulted in an almost $125 billion surplus among Americans, it's not necessarily a sign of an improving economy as Americans continue to see the Dow roller coaster and fear layoffs and the obliteration of retirement funds. Sigh...

If you have a hankering to hang out — quite literally — with a few hundred naked like-minded progressives this weekend (and who doesn't) mark your calendar for tomorrow night.