How much do you pay to fill your gas tank?
It's a common question in Chicago, where gasoline set a record high over the past week. The average price for a gallon of gas jumped 10 cents to $4.352, according to a weekly survey released by the Energy Department.
Gas prices soared around the country by an average of 8.4 cents, driving up the number of cities projected to cross $4 per gallon to 16. The jump is blamed on Middle East unrest and partially on the large number of devastating tornadoes that struck Southern towns, resulting in hundreds of deaths.
Chicago's recent prices beat the city's all-time high of $4.303 on July 7, 2008.
President Obama, running for re-election in 2012, said Monday on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" that he can't believe how high prices have skyrocketed.
"There are families across the country who've got to drive 50 miles just to get to their job and they just see that money bleeding away from them," he said on the show, which was taped last week in Chicago. "We have to think short-term how can we provide people immediate relief."
But immediate relief might be easier said than done. Political analysts have said there's no foreseeable way to automatically drive down prices.
