Soaring gas prices: What drivers can expect

The economic recovery is finally gaining some traction after the historic recession, but after unrest in Libya and other oil-producing countries, the result has been soaring gas prices. The question now is whether the price hikes will derail the recovery and when we will see prices go down.

Rebecca Jarvis stopped by "The Early Show" with a snapshot of the latest gas prices across the country. "Right now, the national average is $3.79. It's up about 11 cents in a week's time. And if you look at this year, what we have seen is prices go up 20 percent as far as energy goes. However, even $3.79 - feeling like a high price point - it's still less than what we paid at the peak of oil prices and gasoline prices back in the summer of 2008 when we were paying $4.11 a gallon," she explained.

"People do not want to go back there," co-anchor Erica Hill remarked.

"But there's a chance we could," Jarvis said.

"Right, people are understandably concerned about this. Gas accounts for a really large percentage of the average family's budget, 15 percent," Jarvis explained.

"And it can be even higher when you have a smaller household budget. And this is where consumers really can feel the pinch because when prices start to go up, it's actually can account for a bigger portion of the budget. If you're on the lower income side of things, as that price point goes up, you really feel it in your wallet, for multiple reasons because prices at the pump end up translating to higher prices elsewhere, too," she added.

Due to higher transportation costs, the price of everything from clothing to food is subject to rise.

Asked if she has seen evidence Americans are cutting back on some things, Jarvis said, "It's really interesting. Because people have in some respects cut back. But mostly, it's on gasoline at this point."

MasterCard does this survey every single week that looks at the consumption and spending on gasoline, Jarvis said. For the last five weeks straight, Americans consume less gasoline each week as prices increased.

"So could this actually end up, if we want to find the silver lining here, if we're buying less gas, then the supply is going down. Is there any chance that then the prices could go down?" Hill asked.

"Yeah, well certainly as supplies continue to remain constant, which is what we're saying. So demand is going down right here. What you see when demand goes down, you do see prices start to climb. But what we're seeing is the impact of Libya and the unrest overseas in the Middle East and in Africa, which, by the way, are not big places that we get a lot of our oil from. But they're hot beds for geopolitics," Jarvis said.

"Any time you see this disarray taking place in the Middle East, I've been on the mercantile exchange floor where oil is traded in this country for multiple days - what you see there is any time any headline crosses that talks about disruptions in the Middle East, unrest there, you tend to see prices spike. What a lot of economists are saying is, if that stops, is that is to slow down, then all of a sudden, maybe, we'll see prices come down a little bit," she added.

" Until it does slows down, don't expect it," Hill remarked.

"Until it does," Jarvis said. "And even though our habits are changing here. That's what's so interesting here, changed our habits. We bought more fuel-efficient cars, but it has not translated to a lower price at the pump at this point."