U.S. mood runs on gasoline
WASHINGTON - Quick: What do these things have in common? Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. The Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Wall Street volatility. A cranky, even angry American populace.
WASHINGTON - Quick: What do these things have in common? Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. The Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Wall Street volatility. A cranky, even angry American populace.
Answer: They all have something to do with gasoline. No matter what happens in the world today, just about everything points to fuel and the tricky politics that emerge when gas prices spike.
Americans ranked rising gas prices above subjects including Iraq, Afghanistan, immigration, terrorism, and taxes in an Associated Press-GfK poll late in March. Last fall, 54 percent called gas prices a highly important issue to them personally, but 77 percent said that in the latest poll.
Many don't expect relief from soaring gas costs anytime soon: Two-thirds say they expect the higher prices will cause financial hardship for them or their families in the next six months.
Most are changing the way they live. Three-fourths are cutting back on other expenses, two-thirds are driving less, half plan to vacation closer to home, and almost as many have thought seriously about buying a more fuel-efficient vehicle. Most also are bypassing the most convenient gas station to shop for the lowest prices.
In an era in which globalization is a given, gas prices are the most obvious, most closely felt connection between the daily lives of Americans and the larger world.
Look at what's happened in recent weeks:
Populist uprisings swept across oil-rich North Africa and the Middle East and have included Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. In Libya, rebels are in a standoff with Gadhafi that has shut down much of the country's 1.5 million barrels a day of crude oil exports. Energy traders fear unrest will spread farther across the region and disrupt shipments from bigger producers such as Saudi Arabia and Iran. That could limit supply when demand is high, boosting costs.
The March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan triggered a nuclear emergency, with the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant leaking radiation. The reactor's near meltdown has renewed debate in the United States over nuclear fuel and raised questions about the vulnerability of some U.S. plants to a similar accident.
Oil has surged 34 percent since mid-February to a 30-month high - more than $112 a barrel - as investors worried that the unrest in Libya and elsewhere would keep crude exports from oil-producing nations off the market longer than expected.
Consumer confidence has fallen, just as the postrecession economy is struggling to recover. Gas costs were the reason. Experts say if people are forced to pay more for gasoline, they're likely not to spend elsewhere and that could further slow already sluggish economic growth.
"It's a combination of trends and luck that have put energy repeatedly at the forefront," said Michael Levi, director of the program on energy security and climate change at the Council on Foreign Relations. "We always are going to be dealing with energy in some form or another because it's the lifeblood of society."
