President Obama is encouraging Americans to purchase more fuel-efficient vehicles because cheap gas isn’t going to last forever.
In an interview with The Detroit News before a planned trip to Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant on Wednesday, Obama said “folks should enjoy” the low gas prices but warned against going back to old habits.
{mosads}”I would strongly advise American consumers to continue to think about how you save money at the pump because it is good for the environment, it’s good for family pocketbooks and if you go back to old habits and suddenly gas is back at $3.50, you are going to not be real happy,” Obama said.
The Ford plant Obama will visit Wednesday makes fuel-efficient and alternative fuel cars, but its workers are on a brief leave because sales are down for those vehicles.
In 2014, truck and SUV sales surged, outpacing smaller, traditional cars in the U.S., in part due to plummeting gas prices.
The price of gas has fallen for a consecutive 102 days, breaking any record previously tracked by groups like AAA.
The drop in the price of oil has brought gas prices down to an average of $2 per gallon in most parts of the country. The price of oil has called 40 percent since June and is at its lowest point in five and a half years.
“The American people should not believe that … demand for oil by China and India and all these emerging countries is going to stay flat. Just demographics tell us demand is going to continue to grow, that over the long term it will grow faster than supply and we have to be smart about our energy policy,” Obama told The Detroit News.