Gas

[Gary Max]

Tried to fill the van today with gas. I prepaid a $100.00 and it was not full. Spent another $40.00 on lawn mower gas---and no end in site. A friend called me from Mississippi today and said gas had jumped to $4.47 a gallon down there.

[Lee Schierer]

It's getting ridiculous. Oil goes over $100 a barrel and gas jumps in price the same day, oil drops under $100 per barrel and the prices stay where they were for a couple of weeks and creep down a penny or two. Then the oil companies report record profits and lobby Congress not to cut off their subsidies. What's with that.

When I bought my Miata in 1997 I could fill the tank with a 20 and get change back. I filled the tank this past week and it was pushing $44 and the 10% ethanol gives me about 10% less miles per gallon..

[Bill Huber]

I know what you mean...
I took this in an old car scrap yard a few years ago.
I guess what is really bad is I remember when it was 19.9 before it started going up.

194449

[Jay Maiers]

Yeah.

My wife and I moved about a year ago. She was driving nearly 90 miles round trip to work, and my drive was about 25 miles round trip through some heavy traffic. Our new house gave her a 30 mile round trip with light traffic, and just under 30 miles for me with moderate traffic. Not a bad choice, all in all.

That is, until the company I work for decided to move in to a new building...

My new drive is 60 miles round trip and there's some pretty heavy traffic.

The sad part (for me) is that this office is 11 miles from my old house. :rolleyes:

I'm wondering how long it will be before I would make more money by working at the borg or the fast food joint by my house instead of spending two hours in the car every day.





The funny side of this story: I quit working for company #1 three years ago and started with my current employer, knowing that my wife and I wanted to relocate and that I would want a shorter drive after the move (among other reasons). These two companies are in the same business; my job didn't change one bit. Last May, company #1 went out of business. Guess where my current employer chose to move... Sigh.

[David Weaver]

In 1997 or so, I drove from state college pa to colonial beach virginia fairly often. At one point, there was a gas war around fredericksburg, va and I was able to get gas for 77.9, and after I filled up, got up the street to a place where it was 71.9.

Even everywhere else it was under a buck.

At some point later in college, (different GF, different place to drive) I was driving to western PA and passing a truck depot on a regular basis. I remember listening to news radio to one report after the other of guys talking about road diesel getting in the upper 1.xx's and how it was putting people out of business.

Things change. The gas prices will come down, or they'll force us to CNG. Either way, most of us will live, albeit with less pocket money - maybe a lot less. In the short term, though, the cure for high prices is high prices.

Anyone ever heard that saying?

[Michael Weber]

Summer of 1966 or 67 I pumped gas at a local independent station. Price dropped from the normal price of 24.9 to 19.9 or below due to a "gas war" between stations. One station would lower their price a penny and that would set off all the other stations trying to keep customers. Bought a Prius last year and get about 45-50 miles per gallon. :p:D Tank was about half empty yesterday so filled it up while I was at the local Sam's Club. Took 5.5 gallons.

[Gary Max]

Both our van or truck get less than 15 mpg. Needless to say we don't drive unless we have to. The local roads are almost free of traffic and the citys are looking like ghost towns.

[sarah schell]

What part of MS is your friend in? I live in North Mississippi and it was $3.69 this morning on the way to work. I hope it hasn't spiked since then. I'll be filling up on the way home to be safe!

[Charlie Reals]

I know what you mean...
I took this in an old car scrap yard a few years ago.
I guess what is really bad is I remember when it was 19.9 before it started going up.

194449
Bill, that was about the time cigs were 25 cents in the machine and a dime a pack in ships stores.

I can remember .25 gas and .11 diesel. we watched prices change 9 times one day from .25 to .17 those were crazy times lol.

[Joe Angrisani]

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Invest in energy as part of your portfolio and smile year after year after year.

[Gary Max]

Is that where the saying " The rich just keep getting richer comes from"??????????????????

[Joe Angrisani]

Is that where the saying " The rich just keep getting richer comes from"??????????????????

No. But if you copy them, you go in the same direction! :)

[Scott Shepherd]

It's getting ridiculous. Oil goes over $100 a barrel and gas jumps in price the same day, oil drops under $100 per barrel and the prices stay where they were for a couple of weeks and creep down a penny or two. Then the oil companies report record profits and lobby Congress not to cut off their subsidies.

Why would you expect anything different. If the price goes up today for a barrel, the companies selling gas have to buy it at that price. Then the price drops tomorrow, but they paid for it yesterday, so what do they do, lose money? If you paid $100 for a barrel today and it dropped to $80 a barrel tomorrow, would you be first in line selling your $100 barrels for $80? I doubt it. You'd gradually lower the price over time to protect your investment. It's not a conspiracy to get rich by big oil, it's the little guy at the local stores that have to pay for it and the average gas station doesn't make squat on selling gas. They make more on soft drinks than gas.

[paul cottingham]

Gas is 1.30 a litre here in Canada. Thats over 5.20 an American gallon.

[Gary Max]

Paul just think how happy you would be if that price jumped 10% overnight.

[Chris Kennedy]

Gas here is about $3.85 a gallon. I bought a gallon of store brand milk today -- $4.19. I thought the price comparison was kind of interesting.

Chris

[Gary Max]

It hit $4.06 here today.

[ray hampton]

Gas here is about $3.85 a gallon. I bought a gallon of store brand milk today -- $4.19. I thought the price comparison was kind of interesting.

Chris


not sure of milk exact price but it were under 3 dollar a gallon Kentucky price

[Ron Jones near Indy]

Back in the day (63, 64) my best girl and I would drive to Kokomo on Sat. night to eat at the only McDonalds around and get gas on gas war night. We both ate and filled the tank on the '57 Ford and I had money left from my $5.00 bill. Of course I was in high school and made $1 an hour.

[Joe Pelonio]

I was just going to say that it finally went down!

Seriously, we were at $4.15 most places yesterday, today I saw several back down to $4.09.

My little commute beater 1997 Escort gets 33 but used to fill it for under $30, now about $40

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Gas in the US has been a fraction of the cost as compared to other countries for decades. 2 years ago when my wife and I were getting a personal tour of Christchurch, NZ by a friend and coworker, my wife commented as we passed a gas station, that the price was the same as at home. To which, my friend, Ken remarked that is the price per liter...... My wife said "Oh my!".

[Brian Elfert]

Why would you expect anything different. If the price goes up today for a barrel, the companies selling gas have to buy it at that price. Then the price drops tomorrow, but they paid for it yesterday, so what do they do, lose money? If you paid $100 for a barrel today and it dropped to $80 a barrel tomorrow, would you be first in line selling your $100 barrels for $80? I doubt it. You'd gradually lower the price over time to protect your investment. It's not a conspiracy to get rich by big oil, it's the little guy at the local stores that have to pay for it and the average gas station doesn't make squat on selling gas. They make more on soft drinks than gas.

If oil went up 10% today we'd all see gas prices skyrocket by tomorrow. Funny thing is the gas the station would sell me tomorrow probably was delivered at the old price so the owner makes some extra profit until he gets the next load of gasoline.

Gas prices have stayed the same or gone up since oil prices dropped. I highly doubt stations are still selling the gas they bought for higher cost. The wholesale futures price of gasoline dropped significantly in the past two days, but I doubt gas prices will go down. I know gasoline on the futures market won't actually be sold for a while, but gas prices tend to go up and down based on the futures price.

[Zach England]

In the 1850s My forebearers dragged a handcart across the plains from Illinois to Utah. Do you think they complained about the price of gas?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

In the 1850s My forebearers dragged a handcart across the plains from Illinois to Utah. Do you think they complained about the price of gas?

I doubt it.

[greg lindsey]

My shop is beside a Murphy Oil (gas station) and I'l go outside and have a smoke and watch the price on the sign change by the minute, I swear to you, it will go up a penny , down a penny, up ten cents, down a nickel all in a five minute span. I walked over to the station and asked the manager what the Hell, he replied it's corporate they can and do change it at will. I went to the same station to get some gas, pulled up at the pump and fueled up at 3.68. When I hung the pump back up it read 3.79 a gallon. I felt lucky(yea right).

[Chris Mahmood]

http://www.theonion.com/articles/gasoline-still-inexplicably-cheaper-than-milk,3866/

[Gary Max]

Here's the one to really think about. What happens when the farmer doesn't plant his crop this year because the cost of fuel and seed are so high he can't earn a living.

[Brian Elfert]

Here's the one to really think about. What happens when the farmer doesn't plant his crop this year because the cost of fuel and seed are so high he can't earn a living.

Do you know any farmers who aren't planting due to lack of profit after expenses? Farmers are getting prices for their crops that are very high right now.

[David Weaver]

Here's the one to really think about. What happens when the farmer doesn't plant his crop this year because the cost of fuel and seed are so high he can't earn a living.

That hasn't been an issue for us, could really only be for a guy who has mismanaged money (and can't get a loan) or who refuses to take an operating loan. Fert, seed and fuel are high, but our renter is practically throwing increases in rent at us to make sure they don't lose the farm.

In-laws do a share on their land (they are also a landlord) and in the last few years, they have sold their share and paid taxes and made a tidy profit several years in a row, really for the first time ever (property taxes are high in a lot of parts of PA, you usually get a renter to cover the property taxes, or at least try to cover the taxes).

Starting to look a lot like the 70s, though, where prices were high and people went nutty buying new equipment and getting over their head. The only folks I know who aren't buying new stuff or getting into expensive equipment leases are the dairy guys.

I do feel bad for the dairy and honest animal guys - the guys good to their animals (read: just about anyone who raises beef, hogs or chicken the old way - pastured and with a lot of grass feed), those folks have money come in one door and go out the other, often faster out than in.

[Scott Shepherd]

If oil went up 10% today we'd all see gas prices skyrocket by tomorrow. Funny thing is the gas the station would sell me tomorrow probably was delivered at the old price so the owner makes some extra profit until he gets the next load of gasoline.

Gas prices have stayed the same or gone up since oil prices dropped. I highly doubt stations are still selling the gas they bought for higher cost. The wholesale futures price of gasoline dropped significantly in the past two days, but I doubt gas prices will go down. I know gasoline on the futures market won't actually be sold for a while, but gas prices tend to go up and down based on the futures price.

Sure you'd see it go up tomorrow. Why would you expect anything different? If you sell product and you get a price increase of 10% notice from your supplier, would you raise the prices 10% or wait until you ran out of stock to raise the price? You'd raise the price when you got the news to cover the additional 10% that you'll be paying for the next order. It's common sense, not a conspiracy.

Most people run their normal businesses the EXACT same way, they just don't stop long enough to think about it.

There's a thread in the engraving section where name badge magnet prices are just about doubling. Should we all wait until our current supply of magnets run out to raise our prices? Or should we raise our prices now, since that's the going rate?

I know which one I did.

[Zach England]

I doubt it.


Exactly! Kids these days!

[Chris Padilla]

I normally scoff at the pump prices since I use a bicycle to get to work (30 mile round trip) but the fuel I need is also going up! ;)

[Rod Sheridan]

What I noticed is that gas is cheap where you folks live, why are you complaining?

I paid $1.38 per litre yesterday morning which is about $5.22 per US gallon.

High fuel prices are good, they encourage conservation and innovation, and reduce pollution...........Regards, Rod.

[Ben Hatcher]

To a country used to stable prices and low inflation such rapid and wild price fluctuations seem unnatural. For almost everything else we buy every day we are shielded by the manufacturer from fluctuations in commodity prices. Add in the record profits and what we’ve learned about who knew what in the banking crisis and I can see why people think that there is price gouging going on.

[David Weaver]

I think it has a lot more to do with debt policy and currency strength. If the dollar weren't so weak, and the economy weren't so weak, it wouldn't be so profitable to speculate on high-priced commodity contracts.

[Rod Sheridan]

To a country used to stable prices and low inflation such rapid and wild price fluctuations seem unnatural. For almost everything else we buy every day we are shielded by the manufacturer from fluctuations in commodity prices. Add in the record profits and what we’ve learned about who knew what in the banking crisis and I can see why people think that there is price gouging going on.

Ben, I think it's like everything else, they charge what we will pay. If they charge too much we modify our consumption patterns.........Regards, Rod.

[Steve Griffin]

What I noticed is that gas is cheap where you folks live, why are you complaining?

I paid $1.38 per litre yesterday morning which is about $5.22 per US gallon.

High fuel prices are good, they encourage conservation and innovation, and reduce pollution...........Regards, Rod.

No, high prices are bad.

They decrease our standard of living, increase the cost of food, decrease domestic spending, increase costs to visit family and travel, increases unemployment, increase inflation and generally makes us a LOT POORER.

Low energy costs allows us to be a richer country. Enviromentally, richer countries pollute less and can afford more expensive protections of water and air. Socially, richer countries are more stable. Human rights tend to improve in richer countries. Science and technology advances better in richer countries too.

I could go on and on, but if I hear one more person say it's better if we would be "poorer" I'm going to buy them a one way ticket to bangledesh.

Eventually we will need to move on from oil. But there is a long time for that transition and almost certainly we will come up with even more powerful and cleaner energy sources by then.

-Steve

[David Cramer]

Steve Griffin....well said! My sentiments exactly, even the bangledesh comment:).

David

[David Hostetler]

I am lucky, I live in coastal Texas where prices are "cheaper" than almost everywhere else in the country. I filled up my Saturn this morning, for $40.00...

At lunch time, I got a call from LOML saying that her brothers car (she drives him around in his car, disability thing...) wouldn't start. I ran home, got the pickup that needed gas, and stopped by the gas station on the way back to work. I put $40.00 in it as I don't drive it much. Now mind you, when I first bought that truck, $40.00 would have been a full to the top tank. Now it is around 1/3 of a tank of gas...

I will reserve my political comments as they are inappropriate here, but let's say that the reasons given for the price spike in 2007, can't be the same reasons given in 2011 can they?

What scares the snot out of me is that there are people that think that $4.00+ a gallon gas is a good thing... The toll on the economy, and people's lives / families is staggering.

I personally and very strongly believe that the 2008 economy downfall was triggered by the 2007 hurricanes followed by the gigantic spike in fuel prices. And with the U.S. economy suffering as badly as it has been, as long as it has been now, global economies are following right along with us...

[Bryan Morgan]

I think the gas prices are staying high to us because of inflation... our wages are not keeping up. Everything is getting more expensive and I've been making less money now than in 2007... if you factor for the inflation we know about (nobody really knows how much money is printed) I make less money now than I did in 2000. The number has gone up but my purchasing power has gone WAY down...

[Charlie Reals]

Wait till the refinery's go under water. The gas prices here are always 10-20 cents higher than San Fransisco. The problem here is the prices are set for the tourists but the minimum wage locals pay it all the time. That is the price we pay for living here.

[Greg Peterson]

Steve, necessity is the mother of invention. Oil is a diminishing resource. As prices go up, other options become economically feasible. Once those options become economically competitive when compared to high oil prices, they will take hold. At that point the alternatives can scale up and cost will go down. Oil will go down as well once there is competition.

As for pain at the pump, you can a little more now or a lot later.

[Joe Chritz]

Granted I am not an economist, nor did I stay at the Holiday Inn express last night but from what I remember is people sell products at prices which it will sell. When the demand goes down because people don't buy the price goes down.

In gasoline (and other fuels) I expect that demand will do down because of innovations in alternative fuels.

If ethanol fuel dropped to $2.00 a gallon I bet every E85 vehicle in the country would use it exclusively. I am thinking it is a little more complicated than a direct comparison to oil prices.

Joe

[Kurt Johansson]

Why are you complaining? Here in Sweden we pay 14.30 Swedish kronor per liter which is the same as 8.78$ a US gallon.
Kurt Johansson

[Darius Ferlas]

Why would you expect anything different. If the price goes up today for a barrel, the companies selling gas have to buy it at that price. Then the price drops tomorrow, but they paid for it yesterday, so what do they do, lose money? If you paid $100 for a barrel today and it dropped to $80 a barrel tomorrow, would you be first in line selling your $100 barrels for $80? I doubt it.

Scott, companies increase price at the pump within hours of some quickly propped up reason for the increase in the price of crude. It takes them days, sometimes weeks, to lower it.



High fuel prices are good, they encourage conservation and innovation, and reduce pollution...........Regards, Rod.
Not really. They are good for those who sell gas. Record profits, and increasing year by year. If governments were serious about conservation and reduction of pollution then ours wouldn't subsidize the sand oil mining, which is as far from pollution reduction as you can get.

If the gas prices as as important to any country's security (and economy) then in the interest of that security we could limit the engine sizes of personal vehicles. Say, by 2015 nothing more 2.0 liter, unless you're a farmer or operate a business requiring larger vehicles (businesses such as dental practice would not be among those).

Prices at the pump have absolutely nothing to do with anybody's environmental conscientiousness but everything with the quick cash grab and the fact we, yet again, there is virtual monopoly on gas production in the US and Canada and Standard Oil (ESSO) is back.

In 2008 crude highs were between $104 and $126 pbb. The highest price I saw then was $1.29/liter. Right now crude stands in the $90's but the prices went all the way to $1.41. So compared to 2008, crude prices are 25% lower but gas at the pump is 10% higher. Nothing to do with supply and demand or even with availability and proven reserves.

Refineries' capacity?
I'm not sure if gas consumption increased by 25% in the last year. Did it?


Why are you complaining? Here in Sweden we pay 14.30 Swedish kronor per liter which is the same as 8.78$ a US gallon.
Kurt Johansson

Kurt, in Canada we are complaining about it because, unlike Sweden, we are an oil exporting country, with second largest proven reserves. In other oil producing countries people fill their tanks for pennies a liter. We pay more than those we export to.

[Brian Elfert]

When gasoline costs are compared between countries it is important to remove all taxes. Fuel taxes are extremely high in most European countries. The taxes are high to discourage consumption. They also fund social programs and roads/transit. Europe tends to have better transit and better roads.

I suspect that if taxes were stripped away we'd find that fuel costs don't vary much between the USA and Europe.

[Leo Graywacz]

My shop is beside a Murphy Oil (gas station) and I'l go outside and have a smoke and watch the price on the sign change by the minute, I swear to you, it will go up a penny , down a penny, up ten cents, down a nickel all in a five minute span. I walked over to the station and asked the manager what the Hell, he replied it's corporate they can and do change it at will. I went to the same station to get some gas, pulled up at the pump and fueled up at 3.68. When I hung the pump back up it read 3.79 a gallon. I felt lucky(yea right).

They passed a law here in CT that the gas companies can only raise the price once a day. A few years ago when gas was $1.50 and it started this rise, they were changing the price 5 and 6 times a day. The General Attorney took care of that. Now instead of a few cents change a few times a day we have 10 and 20 cent changes once a day.

Currently it is about $4.15/gal

[Brian Elfert]

Kurt, in Canada we are complaining about it because, unlike Sweden, we are an oil exporting country, with second largest proven reserves. In other oil producing countries people fill their tanks for pennies a liter. We pay more than those we export to.

What countries import oil and heavily subsidize gas prices? Most of the countries with artificially low fuel prices are net exporters of oil. Most of those countries also own the oil as a state resource. Governments sell fuel at low prices to keep the ruling party in power. The voters aren't going to throw out a party that is providing cheap energy.

The United States would spend billions and billions if government subsidized fuel prices since we import oil. Canada could choose to sell fuel at low prices to citizens if the Canadian government owned the oil.

[Greg Peterson]

It doesn't matter where oil is pumped from. Oil companies could be pumping at full capacity on all the wells in Alaska and the Gulf and it would not change the cost at the pump.

Oil is sold on the international market. Why would someone like Exxon pump a barrel out of Alaska only to turn around and sell it to America at a lower cost than they could get elsewhere?

Don't like the price of gas? Don't buy it. Don't like the price of movie tickets? Don't go to a movie. Don't like the price of breakfast cereal? Don't buy it. Aren't there always less expensive alternative?

It's the free market, baby.

[Darius Ferlas]

It's the free market, baby.
Actually, it's not free market at all.
Far from it.

[Leo Graywacz]

Actually, it's not free market at all.
Far from it.

I agree with this. There is manipulation all around. The government giving subsidies is one way the market place is not entirely free. Giving bailouts to companies is not a free market place either.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Folks,

It's getting political and contentious and I am closing this thread.