Americans are driving less as they pay more at the pump. The Transportation Department says the estimated vehicle miles traveled on U.S. roads in March fell by 11 billion miles — 4.3 percent — from the same month a year ago.
It is the first March decline since 1979 and the sharpest drop for any month [...]

As some drivers hit the road for the Memorial Day weekend, they faced the sobering reality that it now costs $87 to fill a Ford Explorer SUV, up $14 from last year, and $72 to fill a mid-sized Honda Accord, up $12.
Gas prices, which took another jump overnight, are up nearly 20 percent, or 65 [...]

Americans getting an early start on the Memorial Day weekend found that gasoline prices again sprinted to a new record high overnight, reaching a national average above $3.83 a gallon for regular. Some analysts predict gas will surge past $4 as early as next week. It’s already above that in some places.
Oil prices fell Thursday [...]

Opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas production would increase U.S. crude oil production by an additional 780,000 barrels per day by 2027, according to a government study.
The report, prepared by the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration for Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, says petroleum from the area would cut U.S. [...]

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman rejected a call by some members of Congress to release oil from the government’s emergency stockpile — the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
He said the oil is needed to respond to future supply emergencies and not to influence prices.
Bodman also said at a House hearing that he does not believe that rampant market [...]

The International Energy Agency says it is worried whether world oil supplies can meet growing demand.
The IEA’s chief economist says the organization is studying depletion rates at about 400 fields in its first study of world oil supply, and is preparing a revision of its forecasts.
Fatih Birol says the study was prompted by soaring oil [...]

UBS Investment Research raised its price forecast for West Texas crude and Brent “a lot.” UBS now expects West Texas crude to average $115 a barrel this year, $120 in 2009 and $116 in 2010 — increases of 32 percent, 54 percent and 53 percent above its previous outlook.
UBS sees Brent crude at $113.50 a [...]

Runaway oil prices blew past $130 a barrel for the first time Wednesday and kept going, while gasoline prices persisted in their own relentless climb, rising above $3.80 a gallon.
Wednesday’s rally was fed in part by a report from the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration, which said crude inventories fell last week, when analysts expected [...]

Oil prices bolted to a new record above $132 a barrel Wednesday after the government reported that supplies of crude oil and gasoline fell unexpectedly last week. And crude’s rise in the futures market again pressured consumers by pulling prices at the pump higher — a gallon of regular gas rose overnight to a new [...]

In an interview with CNBC, billionaire Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens said he thinks crude oil could go as high as $150 a barrel this year.
Pickens said only natural gas is plentiful enough to offset dwindling supplies of oil, particularly for the U.S., and only a global recession would cause oil to fall.
Pickens said high [...]