With oil topping $90 a barrel, average gasoline prices surpassed the $3 mark this week for the first time in more than two years.
According to AAA, gas prices have climbed more than four percent from last month and are 16 percent higher than a year ago. Prices have been climbing steadily since bottoming out at $1.616 in December 2008.
However, the average price is down $1.101, or 26.7 percent, from the all-time high of $4.114 in July 2008.
Record prices ahead?
That record could get shattered in 2011. Fox Business Analyst Eric Bolling, a former oil trader, is predicting oil will top $125 a barrel next year putting gasoline prices over $4 a gallon once again.
The rise in gas prices has reflected the rise in crude oil, which passed the $90 a barrel mark this week. Analysts say the spike in crude has been helped along by a weak dollar, and the Fed's quantitative easing program.
On the road
AAA says the higher gas prices aren't going to keep motorists off the road this holiday season. An estimated 86 million people will travel by car to their holiday destinations -- a 3.2 percent increase over last year.
As for a sampling of gas prices around the country, the highest were in Hawaii where a gallon of gas cost $3.636. Californians pay $3.275, followed by New York with an average gallon costing $3.262. Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia are already paying more than $3 a gallon.
But some states pay far less. Residents of Colorado enjoy the lowest price -- $2.755 per gallon.
