It's the presidential campaign season, gasoline prices are climbing, and the challenger is demanding that the president get more oil on the market and stop foreign suppliers from ‘‘holding our nation and our consumers hostage...
AAA, formerly the American Automobile Association, reported Tuesday that the price for a gallon of self-serve unleaded hit a national average of nearly $1.74 -- a record in constant dollars, although not when inflation is taken into account. Using today's dollar, motorists paid the equivalent of $2.90 a gallon in March 1981, the government has said....
The $2-a-gallon symbolic barrier has already been broken in the West, and Michigan pollster Ed Sarpolus said his surveys have found people in his state seem willing to put up with a hypothetical $3 gallon before they change their driving habits.

Salon.com Politics | Gas prices taking priority in campaign