The nationwide average could easily push through $2.50 per gallon this week.

I joke that you give up low gas prices for Lent.

But they have been one of the unreported beneficiaries of this run-up, and while the major marketers probably won't do the nuclear option, there are a lot of independents out there really considering it,

We didn't dodge a bullet with Rita; we took a couple bullets in the legs with Katrina and Rita, ... It's still a significant loss, and it's going to create some supply problems through at least mid-October.

There are concerns that a runaway California [gasoline] market could borrow some East of the Rockies gasoline and send futures higher in the next few days.

These are markets where overreaction follows overreaction. It's manic or it's depressive. It never gets even. You have the equivalent of a Dow that moves 4,000 or 5,000 points in a month.