Just watched this short summary video from Bloomberg, I think it is probably one of the best explanation of gas prices situation today.
As we all know, gas prices affects the stories from the supply side and the demand side significantly. From the demand side, we see consumers being able to reduce expenses on gas. The saving actually helped other industries like the automotive industry itself – consumer can shift the fund to buying more expensive cars! From the supply side, the oil producers are suffering. Layoffs, cost cutting, etc., and the dependent industries also suffers. Unfortunately Caterpillar, the company I work for, is affected heavily. So, it is actually fixed feeling for people like us – we can save cost in daily commute, but our income outlook may be reduced as well.
People do forgot about the real reason why we need oil (or gas). We are after the energy, the easy energy supply that was “charged” for millions of years underground, and we dig it out to burn it. There are more and more energy sources that can be harvested relatively easily, and cost will be the determining factor for the survival of the technology. Time will really tell how our energy future will look like.