I have been warning that gas prices have to move up. Refinery margins are getting killed, oil prices are rising, and gasoline prices are flat. Some are convinced that it is just manipulation to get a favorable energy bill passed. Well, if so, a command decision has been made to cease. I am just shocked that it took so long:

Gas price guessing game

Gasoline prices crossed the $3 threshold in the Twin Cities again on Wednesday, defying the traditional autumn retreat and stirring talk of $4 a gallon for next summer’s family vacations.

“This is very strange,” Toews said. “We started tracking gas prices in 2000, and we’ve never seen it go up this time of year.”

Price increases are happening across the country as gas prices start to catch up with crude oil, which hit a record $94.74 a barrel in New York on Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Department said inventories were at a two-year low, then settled at $94.53.

I think it’s going to get really ugly in the spring. Oil prices are so high that refiners aren’t going to produce enough gasoline to refill the tanks, and when demand picks up in the spring, hello $4 gasoline.