With oil and gasoline touching all-time highs again Monday, raging energy-price fever showed no sign of breaking. Before it's over, oil could cost at least $125 a barrel and gasoline more than $4 a gallon in California.
Even if oil were to stop its frenzied record-a-day pace, gasoline costs would probably keep rising for several weeks as past oil price increases trickled down to the pump and the summer driving season revved up.
"Every day there is a new irritant" propelling prices higher, said John Kilduff, head of energy risk management at MF Global in New York, citing the continued weakness of the dollar, violence near oil installations in Nigeria and declining Russian production.
Another factor lending strength to the surge is the apparent willingness of Americans to put up with runaway prices.
"We're not hearing the chatter. We're not hearing about boycotts or picket signs at gas stations like we did with earlier price hikes years ago," said Jason Toews, co-founder of the Gasbuddy.com website chain, where motorists report the highest and lowest prices they see.
Edward Leamer, director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast, said that high prices and a weak economy used to make consumers freeze their spending, a kind of "deer in the headlights" syndrome. Now, Leamer said, Americans are continuing to spend beyond their means no matter what.
"The deer have decided to cross the highway," he said, "and are just hoping to not get hit by a truck."
Sam Roberts of Laguna Beach has grown weary of hunting for cheap gas. The computer systems consultant said he usually would buy from whatever station was closest when his tank started to run low. On Monday morning, he passed $3.99-a-gallon gas in Newport Beach, only to find nothing better than $3.91 at a Chevron in Laguna Hills. He bought 12 gallons for his late-model Altima sedan, saving 96 cents.
"You get tired of looking for bargains because there are no bargains," he said.
On Monday, the Energy Department's weekly survey of gasoline stations found that the average price nationally for a gallon of self-serve regular had climbed 11.9 cents during the last week to a record $3.508.
Gasoline prices began rising in February along with oil prices, and the U.S. gas-price average is now 64 cents higher than it was a year ago.
It was most expensive in California, where the average price for self-serve regular jumped 7.2 cents to a record $3.846 a gallon -- 53 cents higher than a year ago. The average cost of premium passed the $4 milestone, hitting $4.053 a gallon.
