It just has to be Friday…while sitting in my car repair garage this morning getting an oil change on my better halfs vehicle, the manager of the Shell sation next door changed his regular unleaded gas price right before my very eyes…from $3.499 to $3.539…from this you know for sure the weekend is upon us.
It’s also Summer time (a.k.a. Vacation time).
Vacation time and summer is coming.
I expect 4.00 gallon by July and more if we get savaged by more hurricanes this year.
I helped at a Auction House just yesterday for used cars being sold and the few hundred dealers were holding on to thier dollars and purchasing only the vehicles they KNOW will be sold very quickly.
I think it was one of the slowest auctions we had in a long time with dealers being VERY careful what to buy and taking us longer to get fewer cars processed through the barn.
All the rest were simply re-parked until next week’s auctions, even the marginal vehicles with a few problems that usually sells but takes a little longer to be sold to the public. If this auction day was any indicator no one is buying cars in Arkansas and only Hybrids and other fuel efficient vehicles are selling.
Yes there were quite a few Desiel trucks that commanded a premium I think one Cummins Equippted Dodge King Cab Truck sold for about 25,000 plus. Never mind the cost to fill that monster. Whatever the cost, it’s going to be a little bit cheaper than gasoline.
I talked about the gasoline prices with the spouse and looked at our distance from work. We can still maintain our lifestyle and place of employment until the cost of gasoline hits roughly 7.00 a gallon. At that point we must stop driving. Quit our jobs and find new ones within a few miles of where we live. Even if it is working for minimum wage in a McJob part time while riding bikes to the job.
We own two cars, we have already stopped driving one of them and only fill it once every 8 weeks or so. That is why we think we dont think 6.00 gas wont matter. One other thing… has anyone noticed the increasing difficulty to stop the gas pump right at the 1.00 to avoid the 1.01 or 1.02? It seems when we stop that worn out handle it hits 1.04 or so. We dont bother to stop it at a round figure anymore. When it clicks at a full tank, we hang it up.
I wonder how long it will take before that day f
Yep, supply and demand is what it’s all about…as long as we demand gasoline to run our cars and the oil companies control the supply, they will supply us with all the overpriced gas we want…and make billions in profits and laugh all the way to the bank.
Too bad not enough politicians and employees of the drive-by media do not get it! BUT RF-1, and eolafan you do get it! [bow]
That is another reason why we must re-generate commuter trains, light rail and motivate mass transit on a National Scale. I live about an hour from our Capital City and see thousands commuting 30, 40, 50 or more miles to work at 80+ mph every morning one way.
Not in tiny hybrids or compacts but in big cars and pickup trucks.
That, friends is the pin on which this whole economy rides. Stop the commuters and we face a Depression.
back home people do ride the railroad to work for a hour or two, but they need to drive 30 minutes or an hour to actually GET to the station.
I remember in England long ago most villages or towns had a working railroad station that can take a person anywhere in the UK for a cost of a ticket and a few minutes bike ride or walk to the station.
The oil companies are not at fault here for the high prices you pay at the pump when you fill your tank. When it comes to profit, they are only making an average of eight or nine cents per gallon. You should instead blame the Federal government, because a lot of what you are paying for a gallon of gas is in taxes which go to the government. Couple that with the liberal, leftist whackos who will not let us drill for oil in places such as Alaska’s north slope. And we have too many corrupt politicians in congress who are part of the problem. I work part time for a local distributor of Shell fuel products, and I certainly will not find fault with them.
CANADIANPACIFIC2816
What we should do is what Brazil did back in the late 70’s Got off the oil like 90%.
Imagine only needing 10% of current oil ships coming in each week and only needing one ship per month from… the Berant’s sea or our own Valdez instead of the Middle East.
You took the red words right out of my mouth.
And for their profit, the oil companies must risk a lot of money to find oil, get it out of the ground, process it into products, and distribute the produ
…Oh, reading all of the above it all sounds so simple and easy.
Must not be or some forces here in our government, business community, someone else, would come up with a solution for our run away prices…and just since the first of the year for the most part. What, something like 40 to 50% increase in the price of a gal of gasoline since then and no extreme emergencies more so now then then…Several years ago it took major emergencies such as the massive destruction of hurricanes that damaged infrastructure, etc…Nothing going on in that magnitude now…and still the prices have skyrocked.
Of course everyone is aware our biggest oil conglomerates keep reporting exorbitant profits year after year currently…So all the extreme prices have more to do than just Liberals and Whacko’s…
I really don’t blame the local dealers for much of this extreme pricing as I believe they are in the same ever increasing price loop…
We do need much better accountablity of where it {extreme pricing}, is really coming from…and why…!
There are a couple of issues that are driving price up besides the supposed gouging of the oil companies. One is the exploding growth in China and India, and the sudden widespread introduction of the automobile in those two countries. China’s economy is growing twelve times faster than the U.S. right now, and the rate is on an increasing trend.
The other issue that shortens the supply is Democrat environmental politics in the U.S. which has all but outlawed new refinery construction and places signicant limits on drilling, all in the name of their basic energy policy which is to conserve. <
There are a couple of issues that are driving price up besides the supposed gouging of the oil companies. One is the exploding growth in China and India, and the sudden widespread introduction of the automobile in those two countries. China’s economy is growing twelve times faster than the U.S. right now, and the rate is on an increasing trend.
The other issue that shortens the supply is Democrat environmental politics in the U.S. which has all but outlawed new refinery construction and places signicant limits on drilling, all in the name of their basic energy policy which is to conserve. <
Just to add a bit to our discussion…“It must be Friday”…
Yes, most who at least turn an ear to world happenings realize other world economies are into the battle for world oil now…Especially India and China.
I’d rather not degenerate this discussion into a “one side political blame”, so just some of my thoughts here…
I have no first hand knowledge of what the capacity of refineries are in this country…and whether they are up to the job or not.
I keep hearing…“no refineries built since the 70’s, etc…”, and I wonder just where the truth really is. Not long ago I saw a report of refinery capacity has been inproved by current facilities having been modified and improved over recent years that does improve and increase the output…So just where the truth is, probably somewhere in the middle.
We all know the political forces that govern our economy is not all one sided…Anyone surely understands that. From spending resourses on war to the other extreme of environmental issues…
Overall, what I’m saying…I believe the American people would like to get some straight answers of just why prices are right now skyrocketing… We hear it’s China and the nex day…their servicing some refineries…next it’s shortage of crude…next, we’re overloading refineries with too much crude to process…and the beat goes on and straight answers, we’re not getting…But high and unreasonable prices seem to come pretty easy.
That’s sad, but true. I think a large part to the price increase is that oil companies know that most people won’t change their driving habits when prices go up. [banghead] They’ll whine but keep paying. All other things aside if people changed what they could as far as driving habits go and tried to bike/mass transit/carpool/use more fuel efficient transportation that would save money and maybe get the prices down a bit. Just my [2c]
Why do you believe those answers are not straight answers?
…Another example of “answers” regarding our escalating gasoline prices…One of our experts from the local university had an article in the paper a few weeks ago commenting various reasoning, some of the everyday “explainations” of what would prevail in pricing for the upcoming vacation driving season…We would probably see a max. of 2.67 / gal. of gas and of course we know gas prices have escalated at a steep incline since then almost immediately passing his quote of what the max. would be this Summer…What to believe on the subject…I really don’t know. Why…Doesn’t it seem obvious.
One reason, not mensioned so far, is the results of Wall Street speculators on the futures (commondoty) trading. THEY ARE THE ONES paying higher prices for gas because _________(fill in the blank with the "reason-du-juer’) hoping that prices will rise enough on their own because of that event that they can turn around and sell these commodoties at a HUGE profit for themselves, the public be damned.
If you would look beyond the numbers spouted by the media, you will see that the oil companies reported record sales, and record quantities to go with those record profits. We bought more, so they made more. I, personally don’t have problem with that.
Really, you had a problem with a .04 hike on Friday? Come up to the Fort where the price jumps .20 on Thursday!
…A 20 cents hike here in our area is not uncommon at all. It’s been happening as a normal function when they raise it.
A strange thing {to me} at least…In my home area, over in Pennsylvania just a few days ago the price was 2.95…! Here: 3.39. That’s quite a difference.