by pochax on Sun Nov 02, 2008 9:45 pm
i'm no energy expert but my understanding is that the prices have dropped this low (as well as oil prices) because global demand is down due to the economic crises ravaging the entire world. my suspicion therefore is when the markets start to stabilize, there will be a trend towards higher gas prices but it may not go up as fast as it did earlier in the year if speculators were indeed a major cause of those record highs as some experts think they were. finally, i heard a rumor (unconfirmed) that OPEC "secretly" wants to have oil settle at $100/barrel as a "fair" price. obviously we are well below that, so OPEC can increase or decrease the supply of oil to target that price as they so desire, if indeed that rumor was true. In the long-run, if alternative energy sources become available and the last gas price crisis startled enough of America to continue their new "gas-saving" habits (buy smaller cars, commute more, fewer road trips, etc etc), then a lot of the pressures to increase gas prices won't be there.