11/21/08 Lower Fuel Prices & Secretary Hopeful

Lower Fuel Prices & Secretary Hopeful. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. Here's something to be grateful for: This Thanksgiving, the price of gasoline is expected to be below $2 a gallon. Some analysts foresee pump prices as low as $1.75 a gallon this winter. The average US price of a gallon of regular is now $1.99, according to GasPriceWatch.com, a price-tracking firm. The last time gasoline prices were this low was March 2005. Since July, the price of fuel has dropped by half, cutting the cost of filling up a family sedan's 13-gallon tank by about $26. The savings could help strained family budgets  perhaps giving a household that has two cars an extra annual income of $2,400, if current prices hold. Former Texas Congressman and House Ag Committee Member Charlie Stenholm is one of the many names circulating in Washington for the new Secretary of Agriculture. Stenholm admits the Secretary of Ag position is one he has eyed and would gladly accept. STENHOLM: If the President calls and asks me I certainly give serious consideration to accepting. That's been my life. I spent 26 years in the House on the House Ag Committee and hoped to become the chairman but politics kind of took care of that. Now here's today's Washington Grange Report. (GRANGE) That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.