One Thing Mainers Don’t Need Because of the War in Israel

But it well could happen.  Gas prices going up. Oh, no – Say it isn’t so.

Prices at the pump have been slowly, oh so slowly, going back down. However, with the issue in the Middle East the price at the pump could go the other way, and quickly.

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Just in time for winter.

Even though Israel and Palestine are not major oil producing countries, the crisis is in a major oil producing region. Neighboring Saudi Arabia is a world leader in oil exports.

And history teaches that anytime there is unrest in the Middle East, it causes our oil prices to spike.

Oil prices went up on Sunday.

However, the experts don’t expect a long-term impact on oil and gas prices unless the conflict itself continues to escalate. Or other countries in the region get involved in the combat.

For the foreseeable future -- for the next, shall we say, 15 to 40 days -- people are going to see gas prices dropping,

said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at Oil Price Information Service.

Longer term, it's a concern.

Hopefully the conflict calms quickly, and we can go back to paying what are already higher prices for gas and oil than we want to pay.

Especially with winter coming and the impact that a cold winter could cost all Mainers for heat. It is already going to cut deeply into our budgets. We don’t need to try to figure it out if prices go through the roof again.