Dr. Mike Walden, North Carolina Cooperative Extension economist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University, responds:

"In terms of what it would save people, it would reduce what we spend at the pump initially by about 18 cents per gallon. That is the federal gas tax. So that is not going to make a tremendous amount of difference, but obviously the more you drive, the more you are going to save. But there are a couple of questions here. Number one, recognize that 18 cents per gallon goes into the federal highway fund, which in turn gets sent back to states. And actually, North Carolina gets back about dollar for dollar what we send to Washington. So if we're not collecting that money, that means there is going to be less money for road building and maintenance. That means that there may potentially be more traffic congestion, more car repairs because roads are bumpier. So we're not going to save that totally when you take that into account. Secondly, if drivers drive a little bit more as a result of that price coming down - that 18 cents coming off - that will actually cause, later, the price to go back up a little bit. So we likely won't save the full 18 cents per gallon, and that money will go directly to the gas companies, the oil companies and the producers of oil. So I think we have to counter balance the benefits here that people see from saving 18 cents per gallon against these possible negative impacts."