How Will Fuel Prices Affect You This Year?
If your rig runs on diesel, you’ve probably watched the pump prices with horror the last few days. Last summer while traveling through rural Nevada we paid $4.999 a gallon for diesel at one gouging spot; what a relief when the pump prices began that big downhill slide. And continued to run like a truck on a steep grade until a couple of months ago, when in January a 2 cent uptick caused a small amount of anxiety. But watching the prices go up a couple of cents a day, three days straight, we began to get a bit concerned. RVs run on fuel. The lifestyle is sometimes dictated by fuel prices.
Uncle Sam’s energy auditors tell us that diesel prices went up 7 cents a gallon across the nation last week. Gasoline, too, hit a national average of over $2.00 a gallon for the first time since last November. Why is this happening, and where will it lead? Depends on who you ask. Truth be told, the oil refiners are slowing down production, grumbling that they don’t believe demand will really go up, so they’re cutting back on production. But according to a story posted by Blomberg, “The last time we saw a spike up in gasoline prices, we saw demand weaken, but as the weather warms up, demand usually goes up,” said Phil Flynn, senior trader at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago.
Higher prices, reduced demand. Warmer weather, increased demand. Higher prices in warmer weather means what? Do you really think anybody really knows? Uncle Sam’s energy elves think they do. The government’s Energy Information Agency forsees diesel prices averaging $2.19 a gallon this year, and $2.51 in 2010. Gasoline predictions for this year say a national annual average of $1.96. Guess prices will have to start dropping again somewhere for that prediction to hold true.
In any event, it would seem that fuel prices this year are going to be a whale of a lot better than what we got stuck with last year. For struggling RVers, that’s a good thing. But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to have a few “lay over” places on our travel maps to stretch our traveling dollars.
Photo: How Some View Fuel Prices, by R&T DeMaris
