Gas Prices hit $2/gallon!

[94MtnYote]

just wait til' you feel the pain of $4 gallon.

[kneedownnate]

I've already been riding the bike more, but will definately be riding even more as the weather improves.  I now go to work at 10am instead of 8 am, so I'll be more likely to ride to work now too!  I need to do the math and see what kinda mileage the bike gets.  I'd like to see 40 but don't know that it'll happen.  We'll see if I remember how many miles were on the bike when I filled up the other day when I fill up next.

[te51levin]

^ Keep the RPM down and shift as early as you can if you're after economy.  But then I probably mentioned that already...

[abnormaltoy]

This is an exerpt from an email I got today:

In just one year.  Remember the election in 2006?
Thought you might like to read the following:
A little over one year ago:

1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%.

Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen:

1) Consumer confidence plummet;
2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.50 a gallon;
3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase);
4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses);
5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars;
6) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.
America voted for change in 2006, and we got it!

[unclejpl4x4]

:funnypost:

[te51levin]

This is an exerpt from an email I got today:

Maybe I'm alone here, but I've never found the most astute political commentary delivered through personal email...

[abnormaltoy]

Maybe I'm alone here, but I've never found the most astute political commentary delivered through personal email...

I have no way to tell if you have company.

I get some pretty good newletters in my personal email. Chain email isn't the best place to get info. I just think it's funny and...eerily accurate. The world, according to the media, has turned to doodoo on the watch of Pelosi and Reid. I thought they were going to make all of our boo-boos better.

[te51levin]

The world, according to the media, has turned to doodoo on the watch of Pelosi and Reid.

Ah, I see.  My problem with this is that the media has one job: sell.  They do that by either telling us what we want to hear, or by giving us something to worry about.  I guess I just don't trust them to tell me the truth.

[abnormaltoy]

Ah, I see.  My problem with this is that the media has one job: sell.  They do that by eitehr telling us hwat we want to hear, or by giving us something to worry about.  I guess I just don't trust them to tell me the truth.

Tell us what we want to hear...reality mush mind TV?


Give us some thing to worry about...endless disaster shows on The History Channel?

And

Tell us what they want us to know, er...what they want us to believe?

Sometimes I think I'm one step away from a tin foil hat...but, I think there are people with the clear goal of feeding us crap. To keep us from looking to hard in the "wrong" places.

[unclejpl4x4]

$3.35 NJ

[Rocksurfer]

Cheapest I saw yesterday was $3.75    Funny thing is, there's a chevron across the street that's ALWAYS 20 cents higher, but all of a sudden they're at $3.89 

They'll make up for it today.

I paid $3.19 yesterday morning...by the afternoon it was all the way up to $3.29. When will the madness stop?

When we say it is, as long as we keep driving like there is no tomorrow the prices will keep going up. When we stop driving and get out of our cars they will take note and lower the prices. They watch this very carefully and everytime they hit that temporary ceiling they back off till we start buying again and then slowly start raising it again until they hit the new temporary ceiling and then back down again. Each time they lower the price a little we start driving again at the new lower but higher price, and that is their new bottom price. Then they start slowly raising it again.

[79coyotefrg]

$3.45

[JanMarie13]

$3.55  here 

and I'm seriously starting to contemplate selling my 4Runner 

no worries, I'm sure nobody will buy it for what I still owe on it anyway, and I don't REALLY want to....

[abnormaltoy]

When we say it is, as long as we keep driving like there is no tomorrow the prices will keep going up. When we stop driving and get out of our cars they will take note and lower the prices. They watch this very carefully and everytime they hit that temporary ceiling they back off till we start buying again and then slowly start raising it again until they hit the new temporary ceiling and then back down again. Each time they lower the price a little we start driving again at the new lower but higher price, and that is their new bottom price. Then they start slowly raising it again.

I was being sarcastic when I asked "When will the madness stop?".

Your way will work, in fact that is what some want "us" to do...change our way of life, but it will work. Anything that drives down demand will lessen the price. Do you really think everyone will stop driving? We are a mobile society, I don't see that changing.

As I've said before, the other way to drive down price of anything is to increase the supply of that item. The United States has more that enough oil within our borders, but it's out of our reach because we're not allowed to bring it out.

Don't get me wrong...I'm not doing my happy dance  at paying these prices for gas...but, I see in our future one of two things. Either we suffer a self-induced economic collapse or we start drilling for our own oil. The happy side effects of this will be an incredible boost to our economy, a contraction of the OPEC economies and a major financial loss to terrorists.

Instead of whining about BIG OIL"S EXCESSIVE PROFITS...people need to hold a fire under the feet of Congress and the President to get off their asses, pass legislation to limit time wasting law, frivolous suits and start pumping some crude.

[te51levin]

As I've said before, the other way to drive down price of anything is to increase the supply of that item. ...Either we suffer a self-induced economic collapse or we start drilling for our own oil.

Instead of whining about BIG OIL"S EXCESSIVE PROFITS...people need to hold a fire under the feet of Congress and the President...

I don't agree.  At least, I suspect I don't agree.  Again, cynical as I am, I just feel pretty certain that this is NOT a supply-and-demand driven change.  I believe it is a case of oil companies playing on our fears and making as much money as they possibly can because they have the opportunity.  Drilling for more oil will put more into the supply chain, possibly lowering the cost, but frankly I am just not confident that that will really induce lower prices.

What you've mentioned makes sense when there are alternatives that the consumer can turn to.  In this case, only a small percentage of the buying public has alternatives such as using public transportation or driving fewer miles.  That means that big oil has us by the short and curlies and can charge damn near whatever they want without fear of losing their customers.  That is not supply and demand, it's a monopoly.  And frankly I think that the oil companies are tight enough that they can operate and work as one unit, agreeing to hold prices at a certain level, rather than as part of a true free market system.

Not that big corporations are tempted by greed or corruption.  I trust them as much as I trust our government.   

[Huhwhye]

Were paying about $4 here in Los Angeles.  I filled up at $3.95 yesturday.  Fortunately I don't drive much.  I'm also riding my bicycle for local errands and Motorcycle whenever I can.

I always thought all those people that commute long distances were nuts.  Hopefully now they are reconsidering.  I know people that moved an hour from their work.  Why?  Just not worth it.  Time and Cost

[Huhwhye]

I don't agree.  At least, I suspect I don't agree.  Again, cynical as I am, I just feel pretty certain that this is NOT a supply-and-demand driven change.  I believe it is a case of oil companies playing on our fears and making as much money as they possibly can because they have the opportunity.  Drilling for more oil will put more into the supply chain, possibly lowering the cost, but frankly I am just not confident that that will really induce lower prices.

What you've mentioned makes sense when there are alternatives that the consumer can turn to.  In this case, only a small percentage of the buying public has alternatives such as using public transportation or driving fewer miles.  That means that big oil has us by the short and curlies and can charge damn near whatever they want without fear of losing their customers.  That is not supply and demand, it's a monopoly.  And frankly I think that the oil companies are tight enough that they can operate and work as one unit, agreeing to hold prices at a certain level, rather than as part of a true free market system.

Not that big corporations are tempted by greed or corruption.  I trust them as much as I trust our government.  

I generally agree with this.  Supply and Demand doesnt work as well with oil.  Elastic is the word IIRC.  For most it doesn't matter what it cost, you still need it.  What are most peoples alternatives.  I think we need to suck it up and build state of the art public transit.  It will be expensive, very expensive.  But so what, it needs to get done.  Places that have established public transit build decades or a century ago have reeped the benefits.

[abnormaltoy]

I don't agree.  At least, I suspect I don't agree.  Again, cynical as I am, I just feel pretty certain that this is NOT a supply-and-demand driven change.  I believe it is a case of oil companies playing on our fears and making as much money as they possibly can because they have the opportunity.  Drilling for more oil will put more into the supply chain, possibly lowering the cost, but frankly I am just not confident that that will really induce lower prices.

What you've mentioned makes sense when there are alternatives that the consumer can turn to.  In this case, only a small percentage of the buying public has alternatives such as using public transportation or driving fewer miles.  That means that big oil has us by the short and curlies and can charge damn near whatever they want without fear of losing their customers.  That is not supply and demand, it's a monopoly.  And frankly I think that the oil companies are tight enough that they can operate and work as one unit, agreeing to hold prices at a certain level, rather than as part of a true free market system.

Not that big corporations are tempted by greed or corruption.  I trust them as much as I trust our government.   

I generally agree with this.  Supply and Demand doesnt work as well with oil.  Elastic is the word IIRC.  For most it doesn't matter what it cost, you still need it.  What are most peoples alternatives.  I think we need to suck it up and build state of the art public transit.  It will be expensive, very expensive.  But so what, it needs to get done.  Places that have established public transit build decades or a century ago have reeped the benefits.

First...the oil companies aren't the ones saying the sky is falling. They are begging for the opportunity to drill wells and build pipelines...that's what they do...they're oil producing companies. The oil companies are faced with lawsuits every time they try to drill, build a pipeline or build a refinery. 

Supply and demand is the most basic of basic economic laws. If there is a steady state of supply matched with a steady state of demand the price for any commodity will, in large part, remain steady. OPEC sets a base price and production limits in an effort to exercise some control over oil prices. I don't know if it's an unintended by-product of their control over prices, but, that control has control over our economy as well. We rise and set with the price of oil. Individual countries, despite being members of OPEC, have in the past agreed to "over produce" from the official production limits, to ease inflationary pressure in the west.

If you doubt that supply and demand works...look at what has happened to the price of corn. I'm not talking about sweet corn you have at a picnic, I'm talking about field corn. Field corn is used in almost everything these days...from cattle feed, making sweeteners, making adhesives, etc. Even the price of wheat, and thus wheat based products, has gone up in price because government subsidies have made it more profitable to grow corn for fuel than wheat for bread. The limited supply of wheat no longer matches the demand and the price has risen accordingly.

The oil companies that operate in America are not monopolies...PEMEX is. The government and private organizations watch the oil companies like hawks. It would definitely not be in their best interest to engage in price fixing...personally, I don't think they are.

If we, as a matter of national security, make laws limiting restrictive, inhibitive and frivolous laws suits whose aim is to stop oil exploration and production we could in a fairly short time be, again, a net exporter of oil. Some of the lawsuits are brought be well intentioned citizens concerned for nature, still others are brought by individuals and organizations that would be happy as a clam if the "big bad USA" was knocked down a peg or two and the world was returned to a pre-industrial revolution state...except for them.

Talk about cynicism? Part of me wonders if...since the middle east is exhausting their supply of crude and we have a great untapped supply, maybe some of the people in dark smoke filled rooms (you know the Knights Templar and the Free Masons) aren't trying to squeeze the life out of the sheiks.

Oh...elastic is what holds up my drawers.

As is my norm...I firmly beleive that if we get the government out of the freaking way, all will be better.

[SHSTL_82]

hell...2 $/gallon would be awesome!

in washington...in our area...3.68 a gallon for regular!!! which is insane and horrible!!!!!

[abnormaltoy]

2 $/gallon would be awesome!

in washington...in our area...3.68 a gallon for regular!!! which is insane and horrible!!!!!

Hey man...watch the language.

I remember, seriously, when gas was 23 cents a gallon...and it was all full service.

[Cheesemaker]

They got us by the nads on this.  They know that we want oil, and we are willing to pay for it.  I personally, have tried to lower my fuel consumption.  By instead of buying the SUV I wanted, I got a minivan.  We have to make sacrifices.  Why buy a SUV that will never see off road?  Buy something more practical.  I've got co-workers that own lifted trucks that have never been off road, and will never be, and they pregnant dog about how they can't afford to put gas in their tanks.  But they have to have that truck, they won't get rid of it! 

We are one of the last countries to have lower fuel costs to customers.  Check out those that live in Canada, or Europe!  Another forum I go to, has some members from Canada and Brazil, and they are paying over $5 a gallon, (if you do the conversion from Metric to American standard.) 

[abnormaltoy]

They got us by the nads on this.  

We are one of the last countries to have lower fuel costs to customers.  Check out those that live in Canada, or Europe!  Another forum I go to, has some members from Canada and Brazil, and they are paying over $5 a gallon, (if you do the conversion from Metric to American standard.) 

Speaking of the nation as a whole, the reason they have their hands on our nads is because we unzipped, whipped 'em out and handed them over. They can't take anything from us that we don't let them have. They have succeeded in fragmenting our society, breaking us down into smaller, more specific groups...divide and conquer.

In Europe they have even higher fuel taxes than we do...are you pining for more taxes? They need to have crippling taxes in Europe to pay for their outrageous entitlement programs. I seldom look to Europe for a positive example.

We need to grow a pair and demand honest, responsible, limited government. If everyone would take even half the time the spend bitching about our various governments and took an active role...if we stop being the silent majority, we could change our nation.

[SHSTL_82]

sorry bout the swears fellas.

[Lady Di]

sorry bout the swears fellas.

SHSTL I realize you are fairly new here, and I know this is a passionate subject, but just to remind everyone, again, Marlin and Mike prefer the cussing be kept to a bare minimum, but if you do feel you absolutely must cuss to use the proper word so the censor can do it's work.
As you had, SHSTL.

Thank you, Carrion.

[BigMike]

http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/statistics/gasoline_cpi_adjusted.html

[sabenson82]

I am paying $4.15 for premium!!!!!  OUTRAGOUS!!!

[CrazyYota]

$3.89 for regular

[BLACKDOG]

4.15 for diesel today 

[79coyotefrg]

I am paying $4.15 for premium!!!!!  OUTRAGOUS!!!

what the heck for

[abnormaltoy]

3.17 regular




3.95 diesel