In my neighborhood, we haven’t yet reached $4-per-gallon prices for gasoline, but we’re starting to approach that level. In California, they’ve been paying that price for quite some time. However, Nicholas Ballasly finds the highest price for gasoline right where it would be the most popular — Washington DC:

As the national average price for a gallon of gas climbs past $3.58, one gas station in Washington, D.C. is charging drivers $5.00.

No owners or managers were available at the Exxon station at 2708 Virginia Avenue in Northwest D.C. when The Daily Caller arrived to ask about the $5,00 price.

“You have to ask the owner, you know, the company,” said one worker.

“It’s going to go up to 6 dollars soon, man,” another worker in the repair shop told TheDC.

In case you wonder why high gas prices should be the most popular in Washington DC, don’t forget that Barack Obama himself said during his 2008 presidential campaign that he wanted higher prices to force consumers to use less gasoline, only he preferred a more “gradual adjustment“:

And let’s not forget now-Energy Secretary Stephen Chu’s declaration a couple of months later that he wanted to see the price of gas in the US look a lot like the price of gas in Europe:

President Barack Obama’s Energy secretary unwittingly created a durable GOP talking point in September 2008 when he talked to The Wall Street Journal about the benefits of having gasoline prices rise over 15 years to encourage energy efficiency.

“Somehow,” Chu said, “we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”

Well, this administration is getting exactly what it wants. And it’s getting it by refusing to allow for expanded American production of oil and blocking natural gas extraction, while using the EPA to declare war on coal and coal-fired power plants. They wanted escalations in energy prices in order to punish the use of energy and force people to use less, while artificially making their green-tech alternatives more attractive in comparison. The result? Rapidly escalating gas prices, which will push an inflationary cycle similar to what we saw in 2008 and 2011, which will kill economic growth and wipe out buying power for the working classes.

That’s exactly what Obama promised us. On this promise, he’s delivering.

Suitably Flip notes that it won’t get much better, either:

February is not typically a month when we see energy prices cresting. Instead, prices tend to rise as we get into the summer driving months (and, inconveniently, as we enter the general election season). Over the last six years, crude oil climbed an average of 44% from its late February level before reaching its calendar year high (on average, it took about six months to get there).

A similar run-up from this week’s average of more than $105/barrel would have us cruising past $150 by the end of August, surpassing the record weekly average price seen during the 2008 oil bubble. …

If this were to play out, $6 a gallon might start to sound pretty good.

Be sure to check out the chart, too.