On the way down: Gasoline prices could tumble below $2 per gallon in some states, but drivers shouldn’t expect to see those deep discounts until the mid-fall when driving season ends, demand diminishes and expensive summer gasoline gets replaced with cheaper winter blends. After hovering near $60 per barrel for weeks, domestic benchmark crude plunged again in early July, falling to around $50 per barrel and fueling mounting speculation that drivers in a growing number of states will once again see pump prices come down to $2 per gallon or lower, Patrick DeHaan, analyst at GasBuddy.com, says in a statement. FuelFix.com has the full story.
Lower still: Crude slumped below $50 a barrel in New York today for the first time in more than three months on speculation that Iranian shipments will climb, extending a global glut, Bloomberg reports. As of 2:30 p.m. today, West Texas Intermediate had decreased 1.8% to $49.99 per barrel. U.S. crude stockpiles remain almost 100 million barrels above the five-year average for this time of the year, Energy Information Administration data show. “Once Iran increases output, $50 could easily become the ceiling for WTI,” Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research in Winchester, Massachusetts, tells Bloomberg, which has the full story.
Liking a limit: Most Americans would support imposing a term limit on the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices, who now serve for life, a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll has found in the aftermath of major rulings by the court on Obamacare and gay marriage. Limiting terms would be difficult, requiring an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Support for the 10-year term limit proposed by the poll was bipartisan, with 66% saying they favored such a change while 17% supported life tenure. The two big rulings in June were widely welcomed by liberals. Nevertheless, 66% of Democrats, 74% of Republicans and 68% of independents said they favored the 10-year term limit idea, according to the poll. Read the full story.
