time unless they can agree on another deal. mike viqueira, thank you. okay. more now on the middle east unrest and how it s going to hit your pocketbook. now, the price of oil passed the $100 mark this week. the $100 barrel mark and the u.s. gas price res now $3.33 a gallon and they re climbing. the higher prices at the pump could affect the u.s. economy on the whole and customers are saying they re feeling the pressure. i was running a little low. this is not the place to get gas. tough time finding a good place to get gas. last month, gas station sales made up over 10% of all retail sales, the highest total that we ve seen since 2008. vera gibbons joins me now to explain. vera, good morning once again. good morning, lynn. this isn t just hitting your
said that it s a situation and this week, the cost of oil jumps to $103 a barrel. that s the highest price since september 2008. today, gas prices are at $3.33 a gallon. that s up nearly a nickel overnight. michael smerkonish is an msnbc contributor, author and radio talk show host. good to see you again. good morning. thank you. good morning. is it for the president to try and tamp down effects of oil prices? maybe it s politically dangerous for him if he tries to daft down the concerns and then can t control it. and i think in large part, this is an intangible that s beyond the control of the administration. we re really now over a barrel, pun intended, because of the events in libya. but i don t think that he has an
humanity committed by gadhafi against his own people. but the resolution is currently stalled, we re told, by concerns from china over a referral to the international criminal court which can prosecute gadhafi for war crimes. american officials also discussing a no fly zone over libya to prevent gadhafi from using military aircraft against demonstrators on the ground. but such a move would have to be coordinated with nato. and would require a security council resolution which arab governments might object to on sovereignty grounds. secretary clinton will be travel to go geneva on monday where she plans to meet with foreign diplomats and the human rights council. they voted to suspend libya from the council yesterday. gregg. gregg: thanks very much. heather: crews are all the unrest, impacting oil prices here in the u.s., oil touching triple digit this is week. and triple a reporting that the national average per gallon of gasoline is now 3.33.
in libya versus the ones being made up. that s part of the problem. what about the reserves that we have here in the u.s.? the president came out trying to tamper down fears. is that something that should be looked at as sort of the fallout plan, fallback plan. na the u.s. wasn t really a trade with libya nor a lot of countries. libya its list of trade partners is pretty thin. we re not facing a shortage. it s more of a psychological impact of a statement like that. take me through the next few weeks. we re seeing oil or gas prices went from $3.25 to $3.33 over night. you start hitting people in the pocketbook, you have angry folks. and there s estimates out there that oil prices on a per barrel basis would hit $200 on a per gallon at the. oomph. what does that mean at the pump? that would be over $6 to $7 a gallon. if you ask me to handicap it.
so gadhafi has turned this country into a place where no other in the world. people here say they just want to have a regular state, a constitution that is not just some sort of fictitious creation of moammar gadhafi and have regular international relations with their neighbors. richard, week after week, you ve been doing unbelievable reporting there. we appreciate your time this morning. thanks so much. my pleasure. more now on the middle east unrest and how it s going to hit your pocketbook. the price of oil passed $100 a barrel this week. and u.s. in the u.s., the national average gas price is $3.33 a gallon. and it s climbing. prices vary around the country with some prices like you see in this video from new york jumping to well over 4 bucks. customers are saying they re feeling the pressure. i was running a little low coming from manhattan and there s no more gas stations from here to long i land. so almost have no choice. you get stuck in traffic over a