The nationally averaged price of gasoline is higher today than it has ever been in the winter months, Heritage reports. With all of the rhetorical good times politicians are already having with rising gasoline prices, the trend does not bode well for Americans' prospects of building on the meager economic recoveries we've had (ugh -- are we in for yet another "Recovery Summer"?).
According to government data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average price of regular unleaded is $3.34 over the three-month period of December, January and February. The current national average is even higher: $3.65, according to the latest figures from AAA.
Last December, motorists encountered the highest-ever price for gas at Christmas in history. Today drivers in California are paying on average of more than $4 per gallon for regular. News reports from Florida put the price at nearly $6.
Addendum: As Gov. Mitch Daniels aptly reminds us, this was the plan all along -- but unfortunately for President Obama's campaign, it's happening a little less gradually than he'd hoped for.
"Let's give the president credit for one domestic policy that works. He wanted higher gas prices and he got them. Secretary Chu said $8 are about what they pay in Europe. It would be great. Secretary Salazar said $10 and it still wouldn't be for drilling in the places where we know there's an awful lot of domestic production. And so, they have gotten the doubling of gas prices and perhaps worse, it's a conscious policy of this administration. Maybe the one thing they set out to do and actually accomplished."