It calculates the most efficient rate of acceleration in a vehicle based on how fast fuel is being burned and other factors and causes the gas pedal to push back to alert overzealous drivers.

Nissan says the system is designed to help drivers become more fuel efficient behind the wheel.

Sign up for Fuelly and add your car's make, model, and year to your Fuelly "garage." Fuelly will display the EPA's MPG estimates for your car (average, city, and highway). Then, each time you fill the gas tank, you record the number of gallons you've purchased and the number of miles you've driven since the last fuel-up in Fuelly (which offers an iPhone-friendly version too). Fuelly will track your MPG over time, as well as your friends' and other members, and even track which user has had the "best tank" on a per model basis. Overall the point of Fuelly is to make saving fuel more fun by connecting your stats with your friends, and at this early point in its life, it does a pretty great job.

"[T]he prices that we're paying at the pump today are, I think, going to be 'the good old days,' because others who watch this very closely forecast that we're going to be hitting $12 and $15 per gallon," Hirsch said. "And then, after that, when oil - world oil production goes into decline, we're going to talk about rationing. In other words, not only are we going to be paying high prices and have considerable economic problems, but in addition to that, we're not going to be able to get the fuel when we want it."

Hirsch told the Business & Media Institute the $12-$15 a gallon wasn't his prediction, but that he was citing Charles T. Maxwell, described as the "Dean of Oil Analysts" and the senior energy analyst at Weeden & Co. Still, Hirsch admitted the high price was inevitable in his view.

"I don't attempt to predict oil prices because it's been impossible in the past," Hirsch said in an e-mail. "We're into a new era now, and over the next roughly five years the trend will be up significantly. However, there may be dips and bumps that no one can forecast; I wouldn't be at all surprised. To me the multi-year upswing is inevitable."

Gasoline prices are rising sharply as refiners, who have kept prices down in order to compete for sales, become more willing to pass on their higher costs of crude oil, according to an industry analyst on Sunday.

The national average for self-serve regular unleaded gas was nearly $3.20 a gallon on March 7, up about 9.44 cents per gallon in the past two weeks, according to the nationwide Lundberg survey of about 7,000 gas stations. The price has risen 64 cents per gallon in the past 12 months.

"The price increase was entirely due to the higher costs of crude oil," said survey editor Trilby Lundberg.

Although the latest price represents a nominal all-time high, when adjusted for inflation it is a smidgen below the record of $3.18 per gallon reached on May 18, 2007, Lundberg said.

Lundberg said things will likely get worse, with prices at the pump rising 20 to 30 cents per gallon in the next month as refiners begin passing on to customers more of their higher costs for crude oil.

Many analysts believe gas prices will rise this spring to new records near $3.75 or $4 a gallon. But not everyone agrees.

Ritterbusch, for example, thinks the high level of supplies, and an eventual decline in oil prices, will pull pump prices down. He doubts prices will rise as high as $3.75 without a major overseas supply disruption or domestic refinery outage.

But Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J., argues that while gasoline prices won't rise as much this spring as they have in previous years, they are starting from a much higher level. Indeed, prices at the moment are 83 cents higher than a year ago. That means retail prices could peak between $3.50 and $3.75 a gallon, Kloza said, well above May's record of $3.227 a gallon.

The Energy Department's latest forecast calls for gas prices to peak near $3.40 a gallon this spring.

Of course, gasoline prices also respond to oil futures. Oil has traded in a band between about $86 and $100 a barrel for months, a trend many analysts expect to continue throughout the year. That will likely keep gas prices oscillating in their own narrow band around $3 a gallon for most of the year.

"With prices over $3 a gallon, there seems to be some real resistance from the consumer," said Michael McNamara, director of research for MasterCard SpendingPulse.

In some weeks demand has fallen by as much as 3 percent.

Although the public has seen $3 gasoline before, 2007 has been different. Where previous price spikes were short-lived, this one seems to be here to stay.

Another reason demand is falling could be due to a slowing economy, or even fears of a recession.

Since topping $3 back in April, gasoline has stayed consistently high, with the nationwide weekly average price never dropping below $2.70 a gallon, according to the Energy Information Administration. For 19 of the last 33 weeks, gasoline has averaged over $3 a gallon.

And brace yourself: experts say with gas already closing in on $4 a gallon in Chicago and San Francisco ahead of the peak summer driving season, higher prices could be in the cards.

Most Americans are locked into their driving habits and can do little to alter their fuel-buying patterns when prices rise, experts say. For example, the number of workers with commutes lasting longer than 60 minutes grew by almost 50 percent between 1990 and 2000, according to Census Bureau data.

"I drive 55 miles each way to work every day," Sandy Colden, of Medford, N.J., said one recent morning while loading groceries into her Honda Pilot SUV. "So I really don't have a choice, unfortunately."

"Things are looking pretty bad for the upcoming summer driving season," said Flynn, citing a new government report showing that the U.S. stockpiles of gasoline fell by 5 million barrels in the past week, much more than analysts were expecting.

Flynn said he believes gasoline prices will head into record territory -currently a nationwide average of $3.07 - by the height of the summer season.

"This is the time of year when we're supposed to be building supplies, but it seems like the refiners just can't get ahead of what has been very, very strong demand," he said.

Today's report shows that the national supply of gas is at the low end of its average range for this time of year, meaning the United States will have less gas in the tank before the peak summer driving season in the coming months.

The government says motor fuel costs have soared 31 cents over the past month to $2.51 a gallon because of the rise in crude oil prices, which accounts for half the cost of making gasoline. Most of those higher crude prices have been passed on to consumers at the pump.

Pushing up gasoline prices in the weeks ahead will be stronger fuel use as highway travel gets a spring boost.

"Fuel demand increases, that puts upward pressure on prices," said Tancred Lidderdale, an analyst with the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the Energy Department's analytical arm.

Refineries will also switch to less-polluting gasoline required by the government during warmer months, which costs more to make and adds five to seven cents at the pump, according to Lidderdale.

The EIA will revise up its estimate of $2.41 a gallon for the average gasoline price for the second quarter when the agency releases its new monthly forecast on Tuesday, he said.

Pump prices are more than a dime higher than at this time last year, fueling concerns that Michigan drivers again could soon pay $3 a gallon -- as they have the past two summers.

"Things might stay stable for a week," said AAA spokesman Jim Rink, noting prices are only up 3 cents from a week ago. "But once we get into March, prices will go up and hit a peak in late May."

Rink said it's not a certainty that prices will top three bucks, but the fact they reached that level the past two years shows the market can sustain that price during the summer driving season.

The higher cost to make summer fuel, higher gas demand and speculators -- those who buy and sell oil as an investment -- push pump prices higher during the spring months, Rink said.

Gas prices are on the rise again, just as Americans hit the highways for Thanksgiving.

Gas prices rose about 5 cents per gallon nationwide compared to two weeks ago, industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday.

The national average for self-serve regular was $2.23 Nov. 17, according to Lundberg's latest survey of 7,000 gas stations across the country.

The national average for midgrade was $2.34, while premium was $2.44 per gallon.

The only place they have to go is down," says Fred Rozell, gasoline analyst at the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS). "We'll be closer to $2 than $3 come Thanksgiving."

Travel organization AAA foresees prices 10 cents a gallon lower by the end of next week. It reported a nationwide average of $2.84 Tuesday, the lowest since April 20.

It's good news for consumers and the economy. Continued lower prices "may act like a tax cut" and stimulate spending, says Richard DeKaser, chief economist at National City in Cleveland. He calculates that higher energy prices the first six months cut growth of consumer spending 1 percentage point.

The U.S. average for a gallon of regular peaked this year at $3.036 Aug. 10, according to OPIS/AAA daily surveys. That's slightly under the high of $3.057 Sept. 5, a week after Hurricane Katrina battered petroleum production in the Gulf of Mexico and caused fears of fuel shortages.

"Everybody was filling up for under $5," said gas station attendant Tracy Moore, who wasn't immediately aware of the problem. She contacted her boss, who ordered all the pumps to be shut down.

Moore said she did not know how many vehicles filled up their vehicles at the reduced rate, but long lines were common as word of the cheap gas spread through town.

"It was just very scary being bombarded like that," Moore said. A line spilled out of the gas station island onto Charles Street. "Even the (neighboring) Sandwich Factory called me up and said, "Tracy, you’ve got a line."

Nationwide gas prices hit an all-time high in the last two weeks, rising nearly 2 cents to just over $3 per gallon, according to a survey released Sunday.

The national average for self-serve regular stood at $3.0150 a gallon Friday, up 1.98 cents in the last two weeks, according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations across the country.

The price exceeded the previous high of $3.0117 set in September last year, analyst Trilby Lundberg said.

"For the second time in as many weeks, the price of crude oil climbed into record territory. This time, above $76 a barrel," said AAA Texas spokeswoman Rose Rougeau.

"Escalating tensions in the Middle East have renewed fears that supplies from the region may be disrupted. If crude stays at or near these levels for an extended period of time, retail gas prices will soon follow, because demand remains strong. And motorists will see new record prices at the pumps," she adds.

The national average for regular self-serve gasoline is $2.96 a gallon -- up two cents from last week.

8. Mother Nature: Though it's impossible to predict just how bad this hurricane season will be, the odds are against the kind of devastating damage seen last fall in the relatively small Gulf Coast corridor that produces nearly half of U.S. gasoline supplies.

But it wouldn’t take another direct hit by a Category Five storm to sent pump prices higher. Hurricanes and severe tropical storms anywhere in the Gulf would likely interrupt shipments of crude oil to refineries as well as tanker shipments of gasoline to local market.

And any spot shortages can be counted on to produce short-term local spikes in pump prices.

U.S. gas prices jumped nearly 11 cents per gallon in the past two weeks with the national average for self-serve regular just shy of $3 a gallon, according to a survey released Sunday.

The average price for the grade was $2.995 per gallon Friday, up 10.73 cents in two weeks, according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations across the country. The price was less than 2 cents below the all-time high of $3.01 set Sept. 9, analyst Trilby Lundberg said.

"Everyone is suffering at the same time," said Sam Shirazie, a clerk at a Chevron station east of downtown Los Angeles. "If I could help to reduce that pain, I would."

No detailed statistics are kept on incidents of gas rage. But the National Association of Convenience Stores said anecdotal evidence indicates they have increased since prices began climbing in February.

Employees of Fleming Corp., which operates 14 gas stations in Kansas and Missouri, have heard everything from "just a mumble-grumble kind of thing to a cheap shot or blaming the clerk for world oil prices," owner Ed Roitz said.

Division manager Ron Davis hears complaints firsthand.

"Out of all our customers, probably 1 percent does the loudest squealing," he said. "I don't want to repeat some of it. They'll talk about the blankety-blank oil companies."

With all the histrionics about rising gas prices coming out of Washington these days, SUVs must be an endangered species in our nation's capital, right? Well, not exactly. At Capitol Cadillac, just inside the Beltway, SUVs are flying off the lot. Last week, former White House chief of staff Andy Card dropped by to pick up a new SRX, Caddy's midsize SUV, says dealer Daniel Jobe. But Jobe's hottest seller, by far, is the newly redesigned chrome-encrusted Cadillac Escalade, an incredible hulk that gets 13mpg in the city. "My biggest problem is not gas prices," says Jobe, "it's getting enough of these trucks."

One in four new models today comes equipped with a gas-thirsty V-8 engine—which is unchanged from last summer, before gas prices spiked, according to new data from J.D. Power. And some of the best-selling rides on the road today are GM's trio of beefy new SUVs—the Chevy Tahoe, the GMC Yukon and that blingy 'Slade, which saw its sales surge 127 percent last month. Meanwhile, last year's "it" car, the hybrid, is becoming a harder sell. Sure, dealers are still selling out of the Prius, but sales of the Honda Accord hybrid plunged 69 percent last month and Ford had to resort to a zero percent financing deal to jump-start its Escape hybrid. For all their megawatt buzz, hybrids still account for just 1 percent of U.S. auto sales and are outsold by SUVs 23-1. "Not a lot of people are jumping up to pay $3,000 extra for a hybrid," says Memphis Toyota dealer Kent Ritchey. "For $3,000, you can buy a lot of gas."

"The new data from the latest AutoVIBES study provides insight into consumers’ future buying intentions," said Rick Wainschel, vice president of marketing research and brand communications for Kelley Blue Book. "Extreme shifts in segment consideration levels reveal just how profound the impact of recent increases in gas prices is on consumers and their vehicle purchase behaviors. This information will be an important bellwether of the long-term effect of this issue on new-vehicle shoppers."

These preliminary April 2006 AutoVIBES data also show an increase in awareness of alternative fuel vehicles. Sixty-six percent of consumers are aware of E85 (a mixture of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline), and 59 percent are aware of flex-fuel vehicles (those that can run on either regular gasoline or E85). The April awareness levels for both E85 and flex-fuel vehicles jumped a significant number of points over the previous month (E85 and flex-fuel awareness levels were at 60 percent and 55 percent in March 2006, respectively).

"With gas prices on the rise and continuing to climb, consumers are more aware of and interested in highly fuel-efficient cars now than they have been in the last 25 years," said Jack R. Nerad, executive editorial director and executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book and kbb.com. "We expect to see increased consumer interest for some of the recently-introduced fuel-efficient sub-compact vehicles such as the Toyota Yaris, Nissan Versa and Honda Fit, in addition to hybrid, flex-fuel and compact models."

Consideration for compact sedans is at an all-time high at 19 percent, up four points from the previous month.

Hybrid vehicle consideration also reached an all-time high in April at 14 percent, which is more than double the percentage of consumers that were considering hybrids last month. (Six percent considered hybrids in March 2006).

In contrast, consideration for mid-size SUVs is at an all-time low at 19 percent, and full-size pickup consideration also is down considerably at 11 percent, a 5 point drop from the previous month.

"There's so much that could go wrong right now," said Phil Flynn, an energy analyst at Alaron Trading in Chicago. "This is the scariest time we've seen in oil in a long period of time."

In addition to the looming showdown with Iran over its nuclear ambitions, terrorists have repeatedly threatened to attack oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia; Nigerian rebels have disrupted exports by 25%; Iraq is pumping out 30% less crude than it did before the war; production in the Gulf of Mexico has yet to return to normal after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and Bolivian President Evo Morales yesterday seized control of the country's oil and gas fields and gave foreign companies 180 days to agree to new deals with the government.

"We're on a hair trigger," said John Kilduff, senior vice president of energy risk management at Fimat USA, a New York commodities trading firm.

"Unfortunately for consumers, we're on the brink of [$100 a barrel] as we speak," he said. "It's been a parade of horribles."

That's what the Gulf Station on Old Fulton St. in Brooklyn Heights was charging credit card customers for a gallon of premium yesterday.

A gallon of regular gas was no bargain, either, at $4.14 for cash or $4.26 on plastic.

"That's crazy," said Mike Charles, 49, after gawking at the astronomical rates. "I've never seen gas prices like that before."

"There's no way I'd ever pay that much," he added. "I don't care how badly I needed gas."

The Energy Department says it expects the price of regular to average $2.62 a gallon, 25 cents more than last summer, over the April-September driving period. But prices around the country already are above that.

"Look, it's $41 to fill it up," complained Lorenzo Rivera, 26, a restaurant manager, as he pumped mid-level gas Tuesday at $3.05 a gallon at a Chevron station near the Watergate complex in Northwest Washington. Across the street at an ExxonMobil station, regular grade was going for $3.09 - and there weren't many customers.

Ervin Goodall, 56, a professional driver pumping supreme grade into his large sedan, was paying $3.29 a gallon. "It's lot higher than last year, a bigger hit," said Goodall, who added that when it comes to personal driving he's scaling back — no more Saturday day trips.

Guy Caruso, head of the Energy Department's statistical agency, said prices at the pump, which averaged $2.68 a gallon last week nationwide, are likely to increase 10 to 15 cents a gallon in the coming weeks, peak in May and drop off in late summer. He said the national average can mask local price spikes.

Gas prices could be marching toward $3 a gallon by summer and drivers are already starting to feel it at the pump.

Worries that ethanol could be in short supply this spring helped push the average price of gas in California to $2.70 a gallon on Friday, 20 cents higher than a month ago and a 33-cent jump from a year ago.

Prices could go even higher as more regions and oil companies begin using ethanol instead of the fuel-cleaning additive MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl, because of underground water contamination fears.

"The shift from MTBE to ethanol is causing problems up and down the entire supply chain," said Sean Comey, who tracks gasoline prices for the American Automobile Association. "Unfortunately, there are some troubling signs on the horizon."

Homeowners and motorists got bad news yesterday as futures prices of crude oil, gasoline and natural gas rose and the American Automobile Association said gasoline at the pumps on Long Island rose by three cents in the past week.

For gasoline prices, at least one expert thinks this is just the beginning of a runup that will peak around Memorial Day weekend and again around Labor Day. "I think there are parts of the country that could see spike highs approaching $4 a gallon," said Mark Routt of Energy Security Analysis Inc., a consulting company in Wakefield, Mass.

Among his reasons: In the short term are shutdowns of refineries for maintenance or repairs, including part of a facility in St. Croix, the Virgin Islands, that's a key supplier to this region. Longer term, it will be a switch by refiners, largely voluntary, from the polluting MTBE to ethanol, a corn product, as an octane booster in gasoline. The shift, mandated by law last year in New York, will increase demand for - and the price of - ethanol, he said. "The supply pool just didn't increase overnight but the demand did," he said.

"We are seeing a smattering of sub-$2 prices surfacing like premature crocuses across the country, and we may see a flirtation with $2 or less in a broad swath of the country this month," says Tom Kloza, analyst at the Oil Price Information Service. He warns it won't last, and prices will rebound this spring.

Last time the U.S. average was less than $2 was March 7, when the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported $1.999. Hurricane-related shortages pushed the average to a peak $3.069 Sept. 5. Lowest since: $2.147 on Dec. 5.

The federal Energy Information Administration said strong gasoline demand during December may be the biggest factor behind the recent jump in gasoline prices, which climbed 8.9 cents over the past week to a national average of $2.33 a gallon on Monday, up 53 cents from a year ago.

“For now, it does not appear that retail gasoline prices will average below $2 per gallon anytime soon, but barring a bumpy transition to the new gasoline formulations taking place this year or a major supply disruption, nor do we expect to see $3 per gallon either,” the EIA said in a weekly review of the oil market.

n the EIA's weekly survey, the West Coast had the most expensive regional gasoline, with the price down 8.9 cents to $2.62 a gallon. Miami again topped the agency's survey of cities, with gasoline down 11.1 cents to $2.72 a gallon.

The Midwest had the cheapest gasoline at $2.23 a gallon, down 9.5 cents. Among major cities, Cleveland had the cheapest fuel, down 10.6 cents to $2.16 a gallon.

The EIA report also showed prices, rounded to the nearest penny, down 6.8 cents to $2.70 in Los Angeles, down 7.3 cents at $2.56 in Seattle, down 10.5 cents at $2.44 in Chicago, down 13.1 cents at $2.42 in New York City, down 13.1 cents to $2.37 in Houston, and down 11.4 cents at $2.33 in Boston.

Separately, the weekly price for diesel fuel fell 17.8 cents to $2.70 a gallon, the lowest level since late August but still up 54 cents from a year ago, the agency said.

Those results led Democrats in Congress to demand a new windfall profits tax. "Big oil behemoths are making out like bandits, while the average American family is getting killed by high gas prices, and soon-to-be record heating oil prices," Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement.

But Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said President Bush opposes such a move and is instead considering a wide range of proposals to help cushion consumers, including the creation of an emergency reserve of gasoline and other refined products.

Thursday's outsized earnings are a result of surging oil and natural gas prices that pushed pump prices to record territory after Hurricane Katrina. They come on the heels of similar eye-popping gains reported this week by BP PLC (BP), ConocoPhillips Inc. and Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO) Chevron Corp. (CVX) reports its earnings on Friday.

Five U.S. oil refineries remained completely shut in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita Wednesday, accounting for 1.31 million barrels per day (bpd) of fuel production, or 7.7 percent of the nation's capacity, Reuters reported.

At least one of those plants, Motiva's 275,00 bpd refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, was gearing up for restart sometime this week. The others were expected to remain idle longer.

Americans angrily grit their teeth as they pump $3-per-gallon gas. They think $2 is about right. In Britain, $3 sounds fanciful — people there pay about $6.40 a gallon and think $5 would be fair.

AP-Ipsos polling in the United States and eight of its allies turned up wide disparities in people's thoughts on the cost of filling up.

Spaniards would like to see gasoline for just over $3 a gallon. People in France, Italy, Germany and South Korea put the fair market price $4 or a little more. Australians and Canadians would like to see it just under $3 a gallon.

"How long before we return to normal? It's hard to know, because we have not yet got an assessment" of damage from Rita, Bodman said in an interview with USA Today on Friday. He said it will be two to three weeks before the assessment is done.

"We're going to go through a very challenging time the next six months, is my guess," Bodman said. "Most of us have viewed energy availability as a kind of right of citizenship," he said, and might have to rethink that as refineries are restarted, pipelines repaired and natural gas processing resumed. "Both in terms of gasoline availability and (prices of) natural gas and heating oil, we're going to have some problems."

The government conservation plan will ask Americans to turn off lights, change thermostat settings, drive slower, insulate homes and take other steps.

ODS-Petrodata, which provides market intelligence to the offshore oil and natural gas industry, said it expected a shortage of rigs in the US Gulf this year.

"Based on what we have right now, it appears that drilling contractors and rig owners took a big hit from Rita," said Tom Marsh of ODS-Petrodata. "The path Katrina took was through the mature areas of the US Gulf where there are mainly oil [production] platforms. Rita came to the west where there is a lot of [exploratory] rig activity."

Ken Sill of Credit Suisse First Boston said: "Early reports indicate numerous rigs are missing, destroyed or have suffered serious damage and several companies have yet to report. Rita may set an all-time record."

The US Coast Guard said nine semisubmersible rigs had broken free from their moorings and were adrift.

He added that if Americans could avoid going on "a trip that's not essential," that would be "helpful."

He also issued a directive for all federal agencies to cut their own energy use and to encourage employees to use public transportation.

Extensive flooding in Port Arthur, Tex., or Lake Charles, La., would cause prices to spike, possibly as high as $6 or $7 a gallon, doubling the widespread assumptions of $3-a-gallon gas that are expected in the aftermath.

Either way, it's going to be disruptive. With refiners shutting down and assuming 4 million barrels per day of capacity is shut in for at least five days, the lost production would amount to 20 million barrels. Gasoline, currently the tightest product, with inventories 500,000 barrels below the five-year average, "runs the greatest risk of tightness and price increases," analysts say. (See: "Rita Recovery May Be More Protracted Than Katrina's.")

"Rita will have a significant impact on petroleum product markets even without significant damage similar to Hurricane Katrina," Merrill Lynch (nyse: MER - news - people ) analysts conclude.

Gasoline prices hit $5.87 a gallon in parts of Georgia, but regional spikes won't become a national trend if Rita packs less wallop than originally feared. The American Automobile Association's daily survey of prices on Friday pegged the national average for regular unleaded gasoline at $2.748 a gallon, $2.918 for midrange gas and $3.025 for premium. The average price for diesel is $2.826 a gallon.

Weather and energy experts say that as bad as Hurricane Katrina hit the nation's supply of gasoline, Hurricane Rita could be worse.

Katrina damage was focused on offshore oil platforms and ports. Now the greater risk is to oil-refinery capacity, especially if Rita slams into Houston, Galveston and Port Arthur, Texas.

"We could be looking at gasoline lines and $4 gas, maybe even $5 gas, if this thing does the worst it could do," said energy analyst Peter Beutel of Cameron Hanover. "This storm is in the wrong place. And it's absolutely at the wrong time," said Beutel.

If Rita hits both the Houston-Galveston area, as well as the Port Arthur-Beaumont region near the Texas-Louisiana border, that could take out more than 3 million barrels of capacity a day, according to Bob Tippee, editor of the industry trade journal Oil & Gas Journal in Houston.

"Before Katrina, the system was already so tight that the worst-case scenario was for a disruption that took 250,000 barrels of capacity out of the picture. That would have been considered a major jolt," said Tippee.

Cliff Evans, oil analyst at the Independent Commodity Information Service, noted that Rita is heading towards the Texas coastline where about a quarter of US refining capacity is based.

'Basically its going to affect the region that was not affected by the last hurricane,' he said.

Evans said that with the storm currently barreling through the Gulf of Mexico, gas prices and not just crude oil should turn higher.

'The Gulf of Mexico produces a substantial amount of crude oil and natural gas. On Monday when we had big up day for natural gas futures, which hit a record high - they were higher on Monday than they were post Katrina,' he said.

Hurricane Katrina slammed into the heart of the Louisiana energy industry, shutting eight major refineries that together account for about 12% of total U.S. capacity. Four of those refineries have already restarted.

The remaining four, representing 5% of U.S. capacity, could be down for months, the Energy Department warns. Murphy Oil Corp. (MUR) has said it will be months before it can restart its 120,000 barrel a day refinery in Meraux, near Chalmette and also in St. Bernard Parish.

Dwight Bradshaw, senior environmental scientist with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, said last week the Chalmette refinery and ConocoPhillips' (COP) 247,000 barrel a day Alliance refinery in Belle Chasse, La., will take months to restart, though Chalmette could be the first to return.

Meraux could take as long as six months, said Bradshaw, who has interviewed refinery personnel on site and conducted daily flyovers of the refineries as part of his job of assessing the environmental consequences of the storm's impact on energy facilities. Lingering flood waters, limited road access and sustained power outages will delay the plants' restarts, Bradshaw said.

People swallowed hard when gas hit $2 a gallon last year. Now, it has passed yet another horrific milestone. In some parts of the country, people are paying as much as $3 a gallon at the pump. That's just ridiculous. Plus, there's no sign that things are going to get any better.

I wish that the United States would just get on the ball with alternative energy. As much as I'm impressed with the space program, maybe those funding dollars should be redirected into research that would develop other ways of fueling our nation.

I'm also very tired of hearing about how our government is working with Saudi Arabia to try to stop the rising price of oil. I can see those heads of oil-producing countries just laughing as they continue to jack up the cost per gallon. If we would just threaten to stop protecting all those countries, I think we'd see an immediate drop in oil prices.

Despite the steps by industrialized nations to avert a fuel shortage, analysts warn that long lines at U.S. gasoline pumps and record prices could augur higher oil costs in the months ahead.

"With nearly three months to go until the end of the Atlantic hurricane season, which peaks between mid-September and mid-October, more storms — both real and metaphorical — could be on the horizon," Energy Intelligence says on its Web site.

Energy analyst Orrin Middleton of Barclays Capital in London says the price relief was likely temporary because of concerns about refinery capacities.

"The huge rally we got last week shows that it's a product more than a crude problem," he says. "I don't think further OPEC crude is going to alleviate the refinery problem."

The Energy Department reported more than 5,000 calls to its price gouging hotline Thursday from around the country, although officials emphasized there was no way to immediately determine how many of the allegations were valid.

"I went in McDonald's to get lunch, and when I came out, gas at the station across the street was 6 cents higher," said Black Forest resident Evelyn Shinn, who was filling her tank at a BP station on North Academy Boulevard during her lunch break. "I'm not happy at all," she said.

The Gulf of Mexico accounts for about 25% of the nation's energy production, while refineries hit by the storm account for nearly 10% of the nation's refining capacity.

At least five big Gulf Coast refineries also remained shut, as was the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, or LOOP -- the nation's only deepwater oil terminal.

The LOOP typically receives tankers delivering about 1 million barrels of crude oil a day, or 10% of the nation's imported crude.

"There's no question gas will hit $4 a gallon," Ben Brockwell, director of pricing at the Oil Price Information Service, said. "The question is how high will it go and how long will it last?"

OPIS tracks wholesale and retail oil prices and provides pricing information for AAA's daily reports on fuel prices.

Brockwell said with gasoline prices now exceeding $3 a gallon before even reaching the wholesale level, it "doesn't take a genius" to expect retail prices to hit $4 a gallon soon.

"Consumers haven't seen the worst of it yet," Brockwell said.

Bodman, speaking on CNBC television, today said the government can meet a request for oil by tomorrow. He said domestic gasoline supplies are a ``concern.''

``It certainly has got to have a dampening effect'' on prices, said Tony Machacek, a broker at Bache Financial Ltd. in London. ``It will help, but whether it's enough to keep the market down in the long term remains to be seen.''

"We expect prices to jump at least 15 cents a gallon in Florida, depending on the damage as a result of the storm" to Gulf of Mexico oil refineries and shipping channels, said Jake Bournazian, an economist for the Energy Information Administration. "We don't know the full magnitude until damage is assessed."

A 15-cent-a-gallon increase would boost the average Florida price of regular unleaded to $2.78 and the price of premium to $3.05. Experts say higher retail gas prices could show up within days, as the price of a barrel of crude oil closed Monday up $1.07 at $67.20, after hitting $70.80 a barrel earlier in the day.