DRIVE NOW, PAY LATER – AT 11:36 P.M. ET:  Better get your warm-weather travelin' in early this year.  Credit-card blues are coming for those who visit the gas pump: 

The forecast for the summer driving season: Hit the road early. Not to beat the traffic, but to beat the higher gas prices expected in mid-July.

Goldman Sachs' crystal ball is proclaiming that oil will soon soar to $135 a barrel, and likely have service stations jacking up fuel prices to $5 a gallon in New York just like the summer of 2008 that preceded the recession.

Indeed, analysts say Goldman and the other oil trading giant that also has the might to move prices, JPMorgan Chase, have already placed their energy bets for the summer. JPMorgan predicts oil hitting $130 a barrel in the coming weeks.

There has actually been some downward pressure on oil prices in recent weeks, but the financial people see that as the proverbial calm before the storm:

"Drivers try to do what they can, but they have to go almost all the places they go," says energy researcher David Greene of the Department of Energy Web site fueleconomy.gov. "There's no magic gizmo that will drastically change someone's gasoline use."

And for that reason, as well as global uncertainty, Goldman and JP analysts see a return to high oil and gas prices in the coming months. Without a significant decrease in American demand -- or a sudden desire not to commute or drive to the shore -- $5 a gallon is likely on the horizon.

COMMENT:  But remember, those high gas prices are good for you.  Why, members of the Obama administration have actually said that, and we know that they are much wiser than we are, and got high test scores and lived in better dorm rooms.  So they have to be right.

I hope the GOP comes up with an imaginative energy policy that can convince Americans that they don't have to pay five bucks a gallon forever.  This is an issue handed to Republicans on a silver platter.  It is also an issue that can mightily help Texas Governor Rick Perry if he jumps into the race, Perry being from a large energy-producing state, and someone who knows the subject. 

In the meantime, happy motoring.  Just don't look at the gas gauge.

May 29, 2011