If you’re anything like me, you’re real sick of hearing about “$4 gas prices,” and you want to tell people to quit being such alarmists.

But it looks like I (or we) might lose this battle. Here’s CNN with the latest:

A survey says the national average price for regular gasoline rose nearly 16 cents in the past two weeks.

The average price of self-serve regular gasoline on Friday was $3.47 a gallon, mid-grade was at $3.59 and premium was $3.70. That’s all according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 stations nationwide released Sunday.

Regular is up 60 cents from a year ago.

The national average price for a gallon of diesel is $4.21. That’s $1.24 more than a year ago.

Of the cities surveyed, the cheapest price is in Newark, N.J., where a gallon of regular cost $3.21, on average. The highest was in San Francisco at $3.88.

Whoa! Looks like San Frans may be paying $4 per gallon as soon a few months from now. And then what? $5 per gallon?

Remember, though: while high gas prices might inconvenience you now, it will inevitably lead to a decrease in consumption, which will force the private sector to innovate — i.e., to make alternative fuels a reality.

That is, if the government doesn’t step in and $&#* things up.