how this plays out. thank you very much. senator jim webb from the senate armed services committee. gas prices meanwhile have hit an all-time high in march creeping up to new averages of $3.52 a gallon for regular. despite the cut in libyan oil production, u.s. stock piles have actually risen since last month. why is gas costing so much? some of this is seasonal, i suspect. cnbc s senior economics reporter steve liesman joins us. there s a lot of uncertainty in the middle east. there s the transition as refineries gear up for the summer season. is there anything else in play you ve been able to determine? well, not much, andrea. first of all, i think it s maybe too early to see the seasonal effects of higher gas prices. which is why it s so worrisome right now. and you re absolutely correct to point out all this happens when stockpiles are reasonably high. and seem to have been growing in the recent reports. about $15 a barrel, andrea, is probably froth from the middle east unres
anyone? well, that rapidly becoming the hot political issue in washington, because why not? it s a way for one party to blame the other for something probably neither party have much to do with, either than a lack of energy policy for 30 years in this country. republicans blaming the spike on president obama s energy policies. what exactly is our energy policy, by the way? and vowing to hold hearings. yes, we need hearings, on why prices are so high. meantime, nervous democrats are calling on the president to scramble and tap the country s strategic petroleum reserve. gas now is at $3.52 a gallon nationwide, which is a record for the month of march. our friend, the economist peter marisi, saying rising gas prices in the spring will translate into some 600,000 jobs lost. how many jobs would you create solving energy, instead we lose them. joining to talk to us, msnbc contributor and lovely lady of d.c., karen finney, and republican strategist susan del
average price of a gallon of gas to $3.52. but u.s. officials are worried about far more than that. they re worried about a humanitarian crisis. as libyan warplanes bombard pro-democracy rebels, president obama is raising the prospect of military intervention. we ve got nato, as we speak, consulting in brussels, around a wide range of potential options, including potential military options. reporter: no one s talking about an iraq-style ground invasion. no option has been removed from the table. but ground troops is not sort of top of the list at this point. reporter: one increasing likely option is a no-fly zone, grounding libyan planes by force, if necessary. this would send a signal to gadhafi that the president is serious when he says we need to gadhafi to go. reporter: a senior official says nato is increasing flights over libya as the alliance debates closing air space over libya, but that could require u.s. bombing inside libya to
implement a no-fly zone over libya. we look into that. and president obama pledging to close gitmo, but that s not in his new plan just announced. and jennifer aniston sex tape it s worth a peek and then some. chris jansing is on vacation today. first off, breaking news for you right now in a gun fight in south st. louis where two u.s. marshals and a city police detective has been rushed to area hospitals. police say the shooting happened this morning in the 3100 block of osage. right now a house is surrounded while they try to figure out exactly what happened there. a man inside the home was also injured. two marshals being treated at st. louis university hospital, and so far there are no details about their injuries. the st. louis police detective was hit in his bulletproof vevt. he suffered a graze wound with that. top story, new fears that the rapidly rising cost to fill her up to empty out our wallets along the way and stall the fragile recovery. the average cost of gas is up an
help save on gas. you know, you got to drive a little slow too, sometimes. reporter: really? of course. you save. reporter: you do this? yeah, i do. reporter: the average cost of a gallon is now up to $3.52. here s who is getting paid. just $2.35 of that buys the oil and 39 cents goes to refining it. 31 cents pays for distribution and marketing, and 46 cents goes to uncle sam. we were surprised to see how wildly prices change from station to station. in west covina, california, this mobil station was selling gas at $4.89 a gallon, but across the street this shell station was nearly a dollar cheaper. i noticed right across the street it s about a dollar difference. i had to come over and take advantage of the dollar difference. reporter: we went in and