Today, for the first time in history, oil futures tipped the $100 per barrel mark for a brief time. At the end of the day, the price of a barrel of crude oil settled in at $99.62 per barrel.

Why do we care?

Because that price is what oil companies will say is the reason for jacking up the price we pay for gasoline at the pump.

Here are the reasons today for the jump:

*Increased violence in Nigeria
*Rough weather at Mexican oil export ports
*OPEC report saying it might not meet its share of oil demand by 2024

I've been reporting the news for more than a decade and remember doing stories on historic LOW prices for a barrel of oil. We're talking less than $20/barrel. At the time, a gallon of regular was about $1.01. Dirt cheap.

Just months before 9/11, oil prices were just under $40/barrel.

Many complained that was highway robbery. Then, the war began.

But it's not just the war that's driven the price of oil up in the last 6 years. It is the increased demand around the world for oil. More so, it's the increased tolerance of us to pay higher and higher prices without cutting how much oil-based products we use.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a huge conservation guy. I own an SUV. Given this, I still see the writing on the wall. The price of oil is never going down until our cars are powered by something else.

When will that happen? No clue.

It's more a question of marketing than technology at this point.