West Texas crude tied to unemployment rate, experts say.
The price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the Nations benchmark, lost 81 cents finishing at $99.59 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Friday. The drop came just after government officials said the U.S. unemployment rate in May rose to 9.1 percent from 9 percent in April.
The Labor Department's jobs report said the U.S. added 54,000 jobs in May, the fewest in eight months. It was the latest in a series of gloomy economic data.
The bad news for job seekers was good news at the pumps. The average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gas in Texas dropped to $3.57.9, that’s down 4 cents from last week. Lubbock again has the lowest reported price per gallon in the state at $3.42.9 per gallon this morning.
Meanwhile Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour accuses President Obama of conspiring to increase gas prices. Appearing on CBS's "Face the Nation," Republican Barbour said Obama's policy is to increase oil and coal prices. He claimed the president wants Americans to use less gas and more alternative energy sources. Barbour said he believes the Obama administration is actually pushing an environmental agenda by manipulating energy prices.
