This comes as gasoline prices in many U.S. cities spiked past the all-time highs set in 1981 with some drivers in Atlanta facing prices above $5 a gallon. Prices also rose significantly in many populated urban centers across the nation. Prices jumped just as Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Wednesday on CNBC that the government was releasing crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, where more than 700 million barrels of crude oil are stored in caverns for emergency use. The Department of Interior estimates that 95 percent of Gulf of Mexico production has been shutdown by Katrina. Some analysts are now predicting that gas prices nationwide could soar to more than $4 a gallon.