$2.999

That's the prevailing price of gasoline in Huntington today, although I did find a station where the post price was 10 cents less.

At this point, we're dealing mainly with psychological hurdles. I mean, what's the difference between $2.899 and $2.999? Suppose your car gets 25 miles per gallon and you're buying $40 worth of gasoline. That 10-cent spread will get you 0.46 of a gallon more, or about 11 miles worth.

For a lot of us, that's not one round trip from home to downtown Huntington. It won't get you from the West End to the Huntington Mall.

So, will we have $4 a gallon by Memorial Day?

I could answer that if I knew what's driving these prices. Other than the fact the retailers will charge what they think the public will pay, I don't know what's going on. I don't know if there is any incentive right now for the people in the crude oil markets to hold down the price of crude oil. As long as no incentive to do that exists, there is no real incentive to keep the retail price lower.

By the way, The Herald-Dispatch has a policy against using the Voice of the People section on the editorial page to organize boycotts. So please don't write letters urging a boycott of a certain company. Or to urge a boycott of one company this month and one company the next month. Someone has already tried that, and I had to notify him we could not use his letter.

Back on topic: One person in the newsroom has already said he has curtailed his travel to visit family because of these prices. For him, the point of pain has arrived.