Gas prices: Back to the future

The era of $2 gasoline may be over — again. The experts today predicted gasoline will shoot past $3 a gallon in the next few weeks in many states with the nationwide average of $2.80.

It’s like old times.

“Right now we have nine states above $3. I think we might see about half of the states get to $3,” Tom Kloza, global energy analyst at Oil Price Information Service, tells CNBC. “The region that will see the biggest increase soon is the northeast because we’re switching to summer gas.”

The lower prices of the last few years didn’t save us a ton of money because we just drove more.

Last month, the demand for gasoline set a record. And it’s not even summer yet.

“There was really strong demand for gasoline, summer-like demand for gasoline,” said John Kilduff, energy analyst with Again Capital. “We’re seeing big volumes of exports too. That’s adding to overall demand.”

Another analyst said airline fares will soon be going up, too.