Gas Moves To $4 On Surging Oil

More gas and oil records fell Monday as retail fuel prices struck new highs and crude settled above $127 for the first time, tightening the squeeze on drivers planning holiday road trips next weekend.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery jumped 76 cents to settle at a record $127.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices rallied at one point to within 5 cents of Friday's record trading high, near $128 a barrel.

Meanwhile, Americans are now paying an average of $3.79 for a gallon of regular gas, according to a survey by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Diesel, used to transport a wide range of goods, now costs $4.52 a gallon. Those prices, both records, are likely to keep rising, following crude's upward track.

Drivers in some parts of the country are already paying considerably more than the average. Prices in parts of California have been above $4 a gallon for weeks, although the statewide average is down to $3.96.

Prices in Alaska and Connecticut are averaging just above $4 a gallon.
Those soaring prices -- which compare with a national average of $3.23 a year ago -- are straining family finances and prompting some consumers to look for alternatives.
In Pittsburgh, some drivers said they had been forced to adjust their spending habits because of higher prices at the pump, up about 17 percent from a peak at this time last year.

Rose Bonesso, a nonprofit worker, said that the rising cost of gas has "hugely" affected her spending and that she was trying to make fewer car trips from her suburban home.

A report released Sunday showed that average retail prices topped $4 a gallon for the first time in two metropolitan areas: Chicago and Long Island. The Lundberg Survey of 7,000 stations nationwide found the cheapest city to be Tucson, where regular unleaded sold for $3.48 on average.