Gas prices appear to have stabilized at just above $4 per gallon nationwide, but Americans apparently don't consider the plateau anything more than a pause.

CNN Money reports, "Retail gas prices have held steady while diesel prices have fallen, a daily survey by motorist group AAA showed Thursday.  The national average price for a gallon of regular gas was unchanged from the previous day at $4.067, ending three straight days of declines."  Despite the drop, "Gas prices are now about 3.3% higher than last month and 36.7% higher than they were a year ago." 

Some analysts think that gas prices "won't go much higher and might even drop a little in coming weeks if crude oil stays below $140 a barrel," according to Newsday.  The price of a barrel of oil "has been between $130 and $140 a barrel for weeks. It settled yesterday at $134.55 a barrel, down $2.45 on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the U.S. Department of Energy reported higher-than-expected increases in the nation's crude oil inventories."

While crude oil prices are holding steady, demand is falling in the U.S.  Credit card giant MasterCard yesterday reported that "American drivers bought 2.7 percent less gasoline last week than a year earlier."

Americans, however, don't trust that gas prices have really stopped rising.  Autoblog Green reports, "A national survey has found that "a sizable number" of Americans think that the end of summer (Labor Day) will bring $5/gallon gasoline."  The survey "was conducted by Opinion Research Corporation (ORC) at the behest of the Civil Society Institute, a nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank, and its Citizens Lead for Energy Action Now (CLEAN) project."

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