Volatile fuel costs are steadily becoming the new norm for consumers in the U.S. and much of the world. Earlier this year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected the price of imported crude oil to peak at $115 per barrel this summer, but due to stagnant global economic growth backed by rising financial uncertainty in Europe, oil prices fell well below $100 in June. Predicting the cost of oil is contingent on many factors, yet it’s hard to deny the dramatic trend of rising fuel costs – today’s oil prices are more than four times what they were a decade ago.