Are Bozemanites Prepared For 5 Dollars A Gallon? It’s Coming.

I spent the last week driving halfway across the country and back. I believe we put in around 4 thousand miles on our little journey.  In fact, when it was all said and done, my wife and I drove in or through 7 different states.  The conclusion?

Gas is costly. Like really costly.

I haven't done the final tally because, to be honest, I don't want to know as I figure it will bring on depression, but I'm guessing we spent around 900 bucks on gas. In all my years driving, I've never seen anything like this.  In fact, when we were in Missouri, gas jumped 30 cents in just one day. We were almost at 100 bucks a tank every time we filled up, and it doesn't seem like there is any relief in sight.

I've been predicting for a few weeks that gas will be 5 gallons a gallon here in Bozeman by the July 4th holiday, but I'm starting to think that we will hit that mark before then. That national average is 4.84 cents a gallon for regular and here in Montana and Bozeman, the average is at 4.62 a gallon as of Sunday.  The most expensive county in Montana for fuel is Power River where a gallon of regular gas will cost you 4.95 according to AAA. Diesel is just under 5.50 a gallon in Montana.

So, how much more are we paying now? Well according to the same website, gas one year ago was 2.93 a gallon for regular here in Montana. So, let's do some math.  My tank will hold 21 gallons, so one year ago I was paying 61.53 for a tank of gas.  Today, I'm paying 97.02.  That's an increase of over 35 bucks per tank.

I'm told by some of my more political friends that this is all a push by the administration to encourage people to get away from fossil fuels and embrace green energy.  I don't know if that's 100 percent factual, but I do know that the President has said there isn't much he can do about the current high cost of fuel and food prices, which isn't the answer that the majority of Americans are looking for.  According to CNN, Biden said last week that there is no immediate solution.

"We can't take immediate action that I'm aware of yet to figure out how we're bringing down the prices of gasoline back to $3 a gallon. And we can't do that immediately with regard to food prices either"

Listen, I'm not the smartest dude, but it seems to me that if you increase production here in North America, that would help. Canada has a lot of oil, so does Mexico, and so does the United States.  I mean, wouldn't you think that now would be the time to ramp up production?  Wasn't there a huge pipeline that was going to deliver hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil to our refineries every day?

I'm not trying to get political here, because I don't think it's a political problem...well, not entirely. Let's be honest, a whole lot of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans are cussing every time they go to fill up at the pump or check out at the grocery store.

People are suffering and it's only going to get worse.

So, yes I believe that we will see 5 dollars for a gallon of gas for regular fuel AND I think that we'll see it before July 4th. Just how high will it go? I don't know, and to be honest, I don't think I want to.