EXTRA...

Gas may be $5 a gallon by Spring

TODAY's quote: "It's not just U.S. demand, it's the global market that affects prices. Asian demand is growing faster than the rest of the world, particularly in China, Russia and India."
- John Hofmeister, former Shell Oil president

What will high gas prices do to the Cape economy?

  Click on the map above, type in your zip code, and find out the cheapest gas price in your 'hood.

Cape Cod's beaches are within a tankful of gas of 50 million Americans

By Walter Brooks

Remember July of 2008 when the average price of a gallon of regular gas cost $4.11?. We';re not back there yet, but today Americans are paying the highest January gas prices ever, and some analysts say prices could get close to $5 a gallon in some areas during the warm-weather driving season.

This was an all too familiar sight on 2008.While the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in the United States last week was $3.39, according to the AAA, that is already 30 cents higher than it was a year ago.

John Hofmeister was president of Shell Oil, and he has predicted $5-a-gallon gasoline prices by the end of 2012 which is coincidentally the time when the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world.

Boston television this morning is running the $5 a gallon scare and asking what it will do to travel this summer.

Meanwhile, back on sunny Cape Cod...

As someone who has been buying gas on Cape Cod since 1965, there is one thing I know that is true: higher gas prices have always helped Cape Cod tourism because we are within a on-day drive of almost a third of the nation's population and wile-in a tankful of 50 million Americans.

And last June we were reporting the prices for regular were as low as $3.65 on the Cape and as high as $4.61 on Nantucket.

See the New York Times report here. See the Yahoo News story here. 

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