The average price of regular gas crept up to $4 a gallon for the first time on Sunday.
Prices at the pump are expected to keep climbing, especially after last week's furious surge inoil prices, which neared $140 a barrel in a record-shattering rally Friday.
Driver Tod Roemer said he paid more than $100 to fill up his vehicle's tank.
"This is ridiculous, what are we going to do about that?" Roemer said.
The price of gas normally goes up in the summer and levels out in the fall, but economists saidthat prices are expected to be higher in the fall than they were in the spring, 10TV's BrittanyWestbrook reported.
"That's the bigger news here," said Ohio State University faculty emeritus Stephen Buser. "We'reon a steady long-term trend upward in the price of oil until the value of the dollar falls to itsultimate level."
As the prices continue to rise, drivers like Isalen Hassan plan to pay, Westbrook reported.
"At this point, you have to get back and forth to work," Hassan said. "You have to make money tosurvive."
Drivers in many parts of the country have already been paying well above $4 a gallon for sometime.
California has seen some of the highest prices; a gallon there now averages $4.436 a gallon,the most in the country. Missouri residents are paying the least at the pump, with a gallon inthe Show-Me State selling for a relatively cheap $3.802 a gallon.
Stay with 10TV News and 10TV.com for continuing coverage on the rising gas prices.
