Gas Prices

[moreluck]

I know the high cost of gas is not a funny subject, but I did chuckle when I read Gordon Dillow's column in the Orange County Register today.

He said customers will complain about the $3.15 for a gallon of gas, but they don't make a peep about walking into the mini-mart and paying just over a dollar for a one-pint plastic bottles of water which comes to $8 a gallon.....For water !!

The column was titled "Forget Gas! Just Tell Me Why Beer's $9 a Gallon."

Also, on a talk show some politician was saying how we need to drill for oil in Alaska but the "green" folks give us grief when it's brought up. He said,"C'mon, I like caribou as much as the next guy and probably goes well with A-1 Sauce, but we gotta go get the oil up there."

Is the gas situation changing anyone's vacation plans? Are the summer trips still on or have they been shortened?

 

[over9five]

The worse part of this is after we fill the tank ($75 in the pickup tonight). We will all pay for the gas, because we have to.

But we won't have the extra money we used to. Won't be able to go out to dinner as much, or see that movie.

Other businesses will suffer as the oil companies get rich.

 

[laborer]

Just plug your zip code in and it'll tell you the lowest -- and highest -- price in your area. Check it out.

http://autos.msn.com/everyday/gasstations.aspx?zip=&src=Netx

 

[wkmac]

I know the high cost of gas is not a funny subject, but I did chuckle when I read Gordon Dillow's column in the Orange County Register today.

He said customers will complain about the $3.15 for a gallon of gas, but they don't make a peep about walking into the mini-mart and paying just over a dollar for a one-pint plastic bottles of water which comes to $8 a gallon.....For water !!

The column was titled "Forget Gas! Just Tell Me Why Beer's $9 a Gallon."

Also, on a talk show some politician was saying how we need to drill for oil in Alaska but the "green" folks give us grief when it's brought up. He said,"C'mon, I like caribou as much as the next guy and probably goes well with A-1 Sauce, but we gotta go get the oil up there."

Is the gas situation changing anyone's vacation plans? Are the summer trips still on or have they been shortened?

moreluck,
Sometimes when you just have no real control over something it's just best to find something to laugh at. I enjoyed the humor of your post and it just shows how silly we are at times.

 

[wkmac]

Hooray! Problem solved. Gov't will just issue all of us a $100 entitlement check but it gets even better. Before you jump up and down screaming at the commie-pinko democrats for another useless, "feed the non-productive types" in society with another "easy money" check for them to waste on booze and gambling you might take a harder look at the article and read who the sponsers are of this latest looney legislation.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/27/gas.rebate/

I can see the democrat party leadership just boiling mad as the "good ole' conservatives" out did them again on another entitlement scheme to buy votes! These guys are so conservative that they are starting to make Marx and Engles look like apostles of Von Mises and the Austrian School of economic thought!

I'll say it again and again and again and..............

There ain't a damn bit of difference between a republican and a democrat and until we Americans realize this and send our votes and support elsewhere these clowns will continue to play us for the fools we all are!

JMO.

Personally I think Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. idea of suspending the $.18 per gallon federal gas tax for 60 days is a way more effective idea in the long run if you're gonna do anything along those lines. To pay for this he also proposed cutting gov't subsidies to the oil companies by an equal amount to avoid added pressure to the current deficit and that's very commendable.

Uh excuse me Senator but why are we subsidizing the oil companies with gov't handouts in the first place? Oh I forgot, you're an expert at playing that $1 game I explained in another thread!

 

[wkmac]

Sorry Moreluck, I can only laugh so long!

 

[wily_old_vet]

Wkmac-I heard about this "rebate" check and it is being pushed by Republicans. However, ANWR drilling is also part of this bill so you know it will be voted down. I'm just wondering if maybe this isn't a smart move by the Republicans to get Democrats to vote down the "rebate" knowing they will vote no on ANWR. Probably giving Republicans too much credit.

 

[wily_old_vet]

I have a question. I have heard that a barrel of oil has tripled in price the last three years. If that is true why hasn't the price of a gallon of gas tripled in this same period of time?

 

[wkmac]

Wkmac-I heard about this "rebate" check and it is being pushed by Republicans. However, ANWR drilling is also part of this bill so you know it will be voted down. I'm just wondering if maybe this isn't a smart move by the Republicans to get Democrats to vote down the "rebate" knowing they will vote no on ANWR. Probably giving Republicans too much credit.

I'm sure it's some type of political manuver as the issue of drilling in ANWR has been on republican plates for some time. From a political strategy standpoint it is a pretty smart move because it would force the democrats to vote down an entitlement that is sold to help the little guy even though they have a counter policy with cutting the gas tax for 60 days. Watching these bantee roosters strut and crow over the next few weeks will at times be funny and at times make you scream and want to pull your own tail feathers out!

You know I'm starting to feel like I'm an owner of a classic hot rod at Barrett Jackson and I'm watching a bidding war take place and my car is the one they are after!


Fuuny thing is, I pulled my hot rod away so they can't buy it years ago!

As for the triple prices on a barrel of oil? I don't know but I'm sure doing some research on the net would give that answer in a fairly quick amount of time. I did hear this last night but first I wanted to throw out this caveat. What I'm about to type was spoken by a right wing pundit during a conversation on the political situation and therefore since this is all op-ed it can't be considered fact. I also have no link but if you contact Fox News and ask for the video from last night where Brit Hume and the bunch gather to discuss issues you can watch it. I was just channel surfing and happen to hit it when Krauthammer was making his point so what lead up and what happened afterward I don't know. I have ADD when I have a remote in my hand!

Just wanted to clarify this since it was such a hot topic on another thread and Lord help me if I were accused of passing op-ed as gospel truth. I know I always assumed we were adults here and were more than capable of researching for ourselves to discover if something were true or not without it becoming a criminal offense. Besides, for anything you find on the net you can just about find the opposite to counter it! I believe it was Traveler that once stated this and he was 1000% correct.

OK, enough op-eding of my own Here's what I heard from Charles Krauthammer concerning the recent call by Congress to investigate the oil companies. Krauthammer said that in 1996' when gas his the $1.20 plus a gallon mark President Clinton ordered an investigation into possible price gouging with the oil companies. Congress did and the conclusion at the time was that the cause was purely an issue of supply and demand. Now Mr. Krauthammer asserts that what held true in 96' is also true today and he could be right as more and more countries are demanding oil for their own use as they develop but there is thought that in light of Katrina that the oil companies have been slow to repair and bring capacity back up on line in order to help pay for some of the costs of the storm damage itself instead of it directly impact profits right now. I'm sure for UPS they experienced some dragging on earning in 3Q and 4Q of 05' as a result of repairing Katrina damage and re-routing our network until everything normal but the incentive for us was to get everything normal as fast as possible whereas in the case of big oil, we are a somewhat captive audience. As I said before I'm not a big Chuck Schumer fan nor am I a fan of gov't involvment in the market place but we are where we are and Mr. Schumer's concerns and the reason I heard him express for a Senate investigation I thought were legit and valid in light of current events. Krauthammer may be correct that we'll learn the same as what we did in 96' but I still commend and support Mr. Schumer's position on this point.

BTW Wiley, good observation on the ANWR part as I thought the same thing when I saw the piece but I'm so tired of the republicans painting themselves as fiscal Knights in Shining Amour when in fact they're as quick to give away the store as the democrats are that I felt that the more important point. The best part however is the democrats during the Bush years have extolled the virtues of fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets and paying down the national debt. At some point the political winds will change and all this vocal grandstanding will come back to haunt them. Politicians are drug addicts and the drug is power. They can't resist it and although they claim now some type of rehabitation, once back with the reins of power the drug will once again sway it's romance and they will be unable to resist. Then we get to watch as those words comeback to confront them. The country's going to hell in a handbasket but it's at least be fun to watch.


If I don't talk at ya again, have a good weekend!

 

[wily_old_vet]

Wkmac-Term limits to curb the power trip (but that is for another thread perhaps). Here is what really pisses me off about the oil situation. We are barred from drilling in ANWR and off the coasts. If it is even mentioned the howls go up. Yet here are Cuba and China talking about drilling approximately 50 miles from the Floriday coast and the sounds of silence are deafening. If it is so bad fro us to drill off the coasts for fear of environmental damage (at I believe a greater distance away from the coast) where are the environmentalists protesting against Cuba and China. Hypocrisy!!!

Have a nice weekend yourself Wk

 

[wkmac]

Wkmac-Term limits to curb the power trip (but that is for another thread perhaps). Here is what really pisses me off about the oil situation. We are barred from drilling in ANWR and off the coasts. If it is even mentioned the howls go up. Yet here are Cuba and China talking about drilling approximately 50 miles from the Floriday coast and the sounds of silence are deafening. If it is so bad fro us to drill off the coasts for fear of environmental damage (at I believe a greater distance away from the coast) where are the environmentalists protesting against Cuba and China. Hypocrisy!!!

Have a nice weekend yourself Wk

Oh I hear ya!

Also check out this "OP-ED" (there's that dirty word again ) from this past Sunday's Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/14/AR2006041401209.html written by former Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore on nuclear power. You read it right folks, he's the founder of Greenpeace. Patrick since leaving Greenpeace as he felt the entire organization has been compromised and taken over by uncompromising radicals with another agenda at heart has now formed an organization called Greenspirit which is actually focused of building bridges with the various points of view in the hopes of putting into play real and workable solutions to our environmental problems that over time builds common ground among what was once competing forces that hopefully in due course will begin to really work together so that everyone wins in the end. I have a lot of respect for Patrick and for his thinking on many areas of the environment.

 

[wkmac]

Patrick Moore's testimony to the Congress on Nuclear Power. Notice the names of environmental folks on the Nuke Power bandwagon!

https://web.archive.org/web/20060314035445/http://www.greenspirit.com/logbook.cfm?msid=70

 

[wkmac]

Hey Wiley,

I heard on Friday that the $100 check would also be counted as income so you'd have to declare it as such. What a deal!


You know if they seriously pass this I'd rather there be some mechanism where I could transfer my $100 with no tax consequences for anyone to a person who really needs this help. I know several church/charitable organizations who are helping folks get on their feet and buying their gas for a couple of weeks would no doubt help. I'm not even interested in using it as a tax write-off but rather just some small way to help out those who are working to climb the ladder of life that's missing a couple of rungs for them.

 

[tieguy]

What I don't understand is what happened to our vehicles and the fuel economy issue. I thought we had cars out 10 to 15 years ago that could get 30 or more miles to the gallon. It now seems like everthing we buy is no better than 15 to 22.

 

[moreluck]

tieguy...I thought by now we would be soaring over the freeways like the Jetson's did.....hovercraft !!

 

[tieguy]

agreed. It seems like we took a step back. shame on us.

 

[wkmac]

What I don't understand is what happened to our vehicles and the fuel economy issue. I thought we had cars out 10 to 15 years ago that could get 30 or more miles to the gallon. It now seems like everthing we buy is no better than 15 to 22.

In thinking back about it, that's a good point. I was pondering gas prices yesterday as I had to fill up and considering it didn't seem that long ago that I was paying around $1 a gallon and I'm talking late 90's if not into 2000's somewhat. I even chuckled of the good ole' days when my friends and I would walk the highway picking up soft drink bottles and taking them to the local store and turn them in for the deposit ($.05 each) and then turn around and buy gas for our mini bikes and then ride all day long. Gas then was in the $.20 a gallon range. Damn I sure miss Mayberry and the 60's!

I think the fact that through much of the 90's things were good and gas prices remained steady if not dropping slightly and we got in a comfort zone after we got kicked out of bed by gas in the 70's and the embargos. Although I look at the oil companies with a slightly suspicous eye, I also don't believe the entire problem is that simplistic and I don't think the solution will be either.

I saw yesterday where some of the data that contradicted itself concerning global warming had now been reconciled and the picture is clearer that human activity is having an some impact so I think we are now upon the threshold that our energy needs and environmental concerns have truly crossed paths and many of the fly by night schemes I see being thrown about as a result of the upcoming election cycle will do nothing as it relates to this twin problem. I honestly think that the true solution is not going to be an overnight sensation but rather a long focused path that will take years. It amazes me that we can go to the moon, put a cellphone in seems like every ear, ship a package to China overnight and I could go on and on but we keep ourselves enslaved to a product and technology that was literally invented in the 19th century. We didn't accomplish these great feats overnight so why do we believe we'll advance to a new transportaion technology that also solves our environmental impact overnight also?

I'm like moreluck in that I would have thought something better would be in place now but at the same time I have to ask this. Big Oil gets gov't support via various actions and the proof on the fly is the recent cries from various politicos about cutting gov't credits in order to use that money to help lower fuel costs at the pump. The Senator from NJ would suggested cutting the federal gas tax for 60 days also wanted to cut gov't oil supports in order to pay for the loss of the tax revs. to the gov't so there you go. At the same time how much gov't credit and subsidy goes to the various auto makers who keep doling out the same ole' thing? Now personally I'm for nobody getting nothing in the first place and let John & Sally Public keep their money and let the free market decide but reality is what it is. That being the case, then if our gov't only chooses to subsidize oil and auto makers who only produce a certain type of car and they gear the market towards such via regulation, then what are the odds that moreluck will ever get her Jetson mobile? The stark reality is if you want that Jetson mobile you and your neighbors are going to have to push and push and push the gov't to get it or better yet push them out of the way and let a free and open market solve the problem. Ah, what a concept!

And btw, I see a real potential future for micro energy generation on a home by home basis where the home itself is built and maintained in that effort but at the same time since the dawn of the 20th century we like all things centralized and planned so with that in mind we also need to push and push our illustrious peters...uh leaders to move away from coal fired electrical generation and more and more towards nuclear. Technology has gone way beyond what we had at 3 Mile Island and Chernoybl.

c ya

Something to watch that I was tipped to and seems to be true but gas drops on Tuesday and goes up on late Thursdays. From watching this is does seem to hold water in my area. The thinking is on Thursday they raise the price to benefit from weekend travel and it goes down on Tuesday because business slows as a result of people having filled up for the weekend are leaving for work on Monday low on gas so they fill up for the workweek on Monday. Sale Tuesday thru Thursday are slow so the price drops according to the demand. Watch this in your area and if it works do like I do and buy on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. Granted it's only a couple of cents a gallon but it does add up. Just an FYI.

 

[wily_old_vet]

Wkmac-One of the arguments I have heard is that the price at the pump is determined by the replacement cost for the oil to replace what is already in the stations tanks. The argument seemed logical and I said to myself ok I can agree with this. Last week when oil got up to $75 a barrel two Exxon stations near me raised their pump prices to 3.09, 3.19 and 3.29. As the price of oil dropped almost $5 a barrel I waited for the price at the pumps to drop as replacement costs were obviously lower. Never happened. Today they went up to 3.11, 3.21 and 3.31. Sorry, now I'm in the camp of those who are claiming gouging. Personally I believe it is the middle people who are taking advantage.

 

[wkmac]

wiley,
I've no doubt the middle man gouging you speak of is taking place but I'm also curious as to the amount of traffic this same station gets? Around here in the high traffic areas and especially closest to the interstates of major highways the price is noticabilly higher but in many of the out of the way stations that get less traffic I find the price to be lesser. Yesterday, many of the gas stations I passed had regular in the upper $2.80's but I has have several routes to work that are all about equal distance but one is a backroad 2 lane jount. On that route is a gas station that typically has lower prices and I paid $2.79 per gallon as a result. I talked with the retailer who also owns the store and he told me for him it is a fact of pure demand. He's not going in the hole selling at the price he is but he's also not making the profit that the high traffic areas are making either. As a result of his holding the price down of fuel and to give him incentive to do so I have not only sent him more business but I also buy quick items like milk, bread, etc. there just as a means of showing my appreciation for his gas pump prices. He's also the one that told me to watch the high traffic areas for the Tuesday and Thursday price swings but because his demand is fairly stable all week he has no trend to suggest the ability to raise and lower price to profit. In fact, if he did, the incentive for his current customers like myself to go there would be gone and we'd go elsewhere including our milk and bread money too.

I also will admit being that there is an Ice Cream place next door and I just happen to stumble over there after work for a sweet delight but then catch pure hell when I get home from my wife because I didn't bring her one!


If the damn gas would go down then I could drive around consuming my delight and she'd never know!

 

[wkmac]

Also learn to use what we call "Georgia Overdrive" and that is on large hills put it in neutral and let it roll while the engine RPM's at idle. Some argue that just taking your foot off the gas is enough but if you have a tach, look at engine RPM's in both cases. When just taking your foot off the accelrator it takes some time for the engine RPM to start dropping in relation to the speed of the car. In neutral, the RPM's go immediately to idel speed (around 700 rpms) and therefore you've just dropped your volumetric cylinder intake because the number of intake cycles just dramatically dropped with it. Learn to momentum drive very much like the NASCAR guys do on restrictor plates tracks and I've actually gotten another day of going back and forth to work out of a tank of fuel doing this. It also helps that I work evening so my commutes are off hours and especially coming home I'm generally a very lonely driver. This helps a lot. Also if your tires call for 32 psi go to 35 psi and get more rollout per revolution. In other words cover more distance for the same amount of energy used. If you like cutting it close on your speed with the traffic cop be careful because it can bite you too.