about $3.66. compare that to last year. that s up about 20 cents a gallon. the weather and the crisis in iraq are a couple of factors fueling that increase. yes, i know, it s a bummer. on the subject of gas, did you really write that? oh, my goodness, at this hour, the competitive eaters are preparing for the annual nathan s hot dog eating contest. joey chestnut set the world record a year ago, 69 hot dogs in ten minutes. he ll try to beat his own record today. so how can these competitors eat so much hot dogs? it s got to be a question of technique. i wanted to bring in the woman who would know. elizabeth cohen joins me from atlanta. from a technical standpoint, scientific standpoint, not because you ve done this before,
america s favorite papa john s. planning your summer carefully. beef prices are at an all-time high. climbing higher. what you need to know. food and gas prices are on the rise and there s no signs of relief with gas prices hitting a six-year high of 3.66 a gallon and likely to stay up for the summer. that s according to trip a. the gallon of regular 3.61. b back in 2008 it hit a high of 4.1 # 1. before they took control of the iraqi city of mow sglul they say gas prices dropped 32 out of the last 44 days. over in alaska and california and hawaii. price at the pump passed $4 a gallon. food prices are jumping as well. according to a new report from the bureau of labor and statistics prices for meat, poultry, fish and eggs across the country are hitting all time
average gas prices for the year up a little bit last year. this year, like right now, i think we are at 3.66, aaa number, i think you can add another 20 cents on top of that because of the unrest in iraq. the unrest in iraq? i was gonna ask, going into the summer driving season, vacations, et cetera, we always see gas prices rise. but you re saying on top of that? iraq is going to be on top of that long-term, iraq is going to be a challenge. looking for iraq to start producing more over the next few years and that s built into everyone s expectations about energy. if you have iraq defending the 3.3 million barrels a day it is putting out now that is going to be a longer term story for gasoline. we won t see it dip down after the summer? i don t think we will see it dip down, most of the people i m talking to don t think you will hit $4 a gallon, hurricane season comes up at the end of the winter, i never like to make predictions what is going to happen. what is interesting, c
personnel. iraq shut down the largest oil refinery in the northern city of bajji. there s concern about oil supplies from iraq. the world s largest oil producer and partly because of that aaa is predicting gas prices here in the u.s. will climb in the coming weeks. potentially hitting a new 2014 high. sharon covers the energy department. she joins us. sharon, we can t totally focus on iraq, at least right now. but experts say there is concern in chance there and other issues throughout the region will eventually impact the oil prices here. absolutely. that s the big concern. that s part of the reason why we ve seen a slow tick higher in gasoline prices at the bump. we re looking at $3.66 for the national average now. it s up a little over a penny. it s climbed about a nickel versus last year. in june, we actually see gas
cnn s chief business correspondent christine romans is joining me now for more. bargain? $3.66? think you ll see this go up as much as 20 cents over next few weeks. you already have aaa and others saying brace yourself for more. aaa saying 5 to 10 cents. our experts are saying up to 20 cents. $3.86 a gallon you could see as prices continue to rise. it he ddepends on what happens the crisis in iraq. you look at oil prices, up 4% so far just this month. the trajectory for oil has been up really since the beginning of the year and if this iraq crisis worsens or doesn t get any better, you ll see the prices continue to go up. that s a big reason why gas prices go up, because of oil. we aren t hearing that oil exports are necessarily being affected in iraq at this point. so is this just kind of a precursor, people are getting ahead of it and are scared.