The Roller Coaster of Gas Prices

The gas prices right now are at an average of $2.05 a gallon, the lowest it has been since 2009. However, Shell Oil 06’s former president warned that gas prices would not stay this low. John Hofmeister, who thought that the prices would be $5 in 2012, stated in an USA Today interview, “The next round of high prices is likely to start later this year, as crude rebounds to the $80s and $90s, perhaps pushing to the $100 level by late in the year or early next.” He still believes that gas prices will reach $5. He also said that he believes that there will be “possible shortages of fuel in some parts of the world.”

Hofmeister says that a solution to the prices of gasoline is natural gas. He has been trying to promote the gasoline as a fuel for transportation since he retired from Shell in 2008. One of his main points about the gas prices for now was to "Enjoy the price, because it's going to go back up” he stated in an USA Today interview.

In some parts of Tennessee, gas prices have fallen beneath $2. Most of the declining prices have happened within the past month. About a year ago in Knoxville the price for gas was $3.065, unlike today’s price that is at $1.894.

The trends of gas prices in Knoxville the last ten years have been going up and down like a rollercoaster. In 2005, the highest gas price was $3.08 but went down the next year to $2.76. 2007 stayed consisted to the price of 2006, however the price in 2008 shot up to near $4. By 2009 the prices decreased by nearly half to around $2.15, and 2010 prices were at $2.43. The price of gas went close to $3.75 in 2011, and stayed constant for 2012, 2013 and 2014. Close to the end of 2014 and 2015 the prices went back down to about $2.