getting !#@%# at the Pump

[banner]

so all these years...gas prices are relatively steady...suddenly this guy gets elected and gas prices shoot up.

He has links to a major oil companies, a few members of his cabinet have links...his dad has links...


whos fault is it exactly?

I don't buy any of this...

why are iraqis getting 5 cent a gallon gas when here people are getting charged 3 bucks.

Thats tax dollars going to work

[RVertigo]

There's more to it...  The price steadiness in the '90s was pretty much faked.  Sounds stupid, but you need to look into it.

Supply and demand determins price...  Oil supply is not increasing.  Oil demand is increasing rapidly...

By some estimates, there will be an average of two-percent annual growth in global oil demand over the years ahead, along with, conservatively, a three-percent natural decline in production from existing reserves. That means by 2010 we will need on the order of an additional 50 million barrels a day.

He said that in 1999...  Too bad China decided they wanted some oil too.  The demand has been growing much faster than 2% annually.

Again in 2001:  

The most significant difference between now and a decade ago is the extraordinarily rapid erosion of spare capacities at critical segments of energy chains. Today, shortfalls appear to be endemic. Among the most extraordinary of these losses of spare capacity is in the oil arena.

A guy named Hubbert predicted this in the 70's...  Too bad no one listened. :dunno:

[porsche4786]

"so all these years...gas prices are relatively steady...suddenly this guy gets elected and gas prices shoot up."

"woohooo...gas prices have plummeted
2.83 "


By suddenly you mean 5 years later after he is elected? It doesn't have to do with Bush, you think the hurricane has to do something with it recently? $2.85 isn't that bad compared to many other places, the west coast has it a lot better than other parts!

EDIT: I almost wish kerry were elected and have the EXACT same things happen to him, they wouldn't blame him, oh gosh no.

[Chris_B]

Have we all forgotten about peak oil and oil production decline?

[banner]

so your telling me its been steady all these years...and suddenly it spikes double within a few years...yeah right.

And the innocent guy in charge has links to oil, all his people have links to oil, for gods sake his daddy has links to oil.

While we're at it oil companies are making record profits?


Yeah...the hurricane did it:)

[Toledo Jim]

Hmm... let me see ... if I pump 20 million barrells of oil this week I'll get $55 a barrell, but if I only pump 15 million barrels I can get $67 a barrell?

O.K. I got it now!  I'll pump 12 million barrells  and get $80 a barrell!!! YEAH!!!!!!! (A lot less work too)

[Slavik]

Rvertigo is correct it's the increased demand (we got like 2.5 billion people swtching from donkeys to cars as a primary mode of transportation ) not the peaks in oil production or decreased supply are causing the rise in gas prices.....nothing we can do about that, although it makes you think if helping chinese ecconomy was really worth it...at this point the only thing you can blam on government (not bushes admin, it had to be done before him) is the fact that this was not forseen and no actions were taken to at least softernthe impact.....katrina didn't help either of cause

at this point I say just take iraqies oil , the liberals still believe that this was the reason for the war (as ridiculous as that sounds), so i at least half the country will be happy that they could tell every one they know that they were right all along.....

[Badger]

so your telling me its been steady all these years...and suddenly it spikes double within a few years...yeah right.

And the innocent guy in charge has links to oil, all his people have links to oil, for gods sake his daddy has links to oil.

While we're at it oil companies are making record profits?

Yeah...the hurricane did it:)

Not to be argumentative, but just ask anyone who lives almost anywhere else in the world how much they pay for a gallon of gas.  I'd bet that in most cases, they pay about as much per liter as we do per gallon.  We have it pretty good in the U.S. when it comes to fuel prices, barring a few anomolies (like St. Croix, which hosts one of the largest refineries in the western hemisphere, and where gas is typically below $1 gallon, although I suppose that is technically in the U.S., so never mind).  Heck, most people in the U.S. pay more for -water- then they do for gasoline.  Go figure.

Oil is getting harder to pump, and the percentage of "sweet crude" that is easiest to refine into gasoline is declining.  From what I understand, this is partially due to the oil fields using "shortcut" techniques to get oil out of the ground faster (such as artificially increasing the pressure in the oil field by pumping water in).  Which is making the remaining reserves harder to access.  This is most likely the case in the Saud oil fields (representing the majority of the known oil in the world), and output there is probably at or near peak.  This has been happenning for a while now, but gas prices have been holding fairly steady.  

*shrug* Take it for what it's worth...I'm no expert.

Argue the politics all you want...think of the Iraq war as a personal favor to the Saud royal family if you choose...heck, blame the hurricane on the administration if you must, but realize that gas prices in the U.S. are significatnly below almost anywhere else in the world.  Ask someone from London how much they pay for gas (Pounds per Litre), or worse, someone from Australia.

I'm not saying that the price increases in the U.S. are a good thing, but that doesn't make it long overdue.  Maybe now people will start to realize that having an Expedition, Navigator, Hummer, etc. that gets 11mpg just because they like the way it looks (and they don't want anyone else to have a vehicle bigger than theirs) is a really dumb, arrogant, and uniquely American thing.

As an aside (as if this whole thing wasn't an aside):  why is it that you only see those stupid, made-in-Taiwan "support our troops" stickers on vehicles that get less than 15mpg?  Doesn't the irony of that hurt their heads?

Wow.  Sorry, I didn't mean to rant.  After all, we all get pretty good mileage on the GS, right?  Take that, uppity Prius drivers!

[pandy]

(we got like 2.5 billion people swtching from donkeys to cars as a primary mode of transportation .....

Hey...I switched from a car to a donkey for my transportation (but don't tell Baby G I called him that...he's firmly convinced that he's more of a steed than any Gixxer could ever be!   ).

So...just out of curiosity, why is gasoline only 3 bucks a gallon, but beer is more like 9 bucks a gallon...there's a WHOLE lot more beer available, so shouldn't it be MUCH cheaper?  :dunno:


:mrgreen:

[RVertigo]

To Chris_B, Slavik, Badger, and anyone else that's read up on peak oil...  

[Phaedrus]

How are gas prices looking for everyone?

In my hometown, the cheapest is $2.59 up to $2.65 per gallon.

In Syracuse area (about an hour from me) I filled up for $2.49/gallon.

I think other places are much lower. NYS sucks.  

EDIT: Figures above are for 87 octane

[porsche4786]

Regular is like $2.30 a gallon, premium is like 2.55 per gallon. not complaining.

[jbeaber]

Berkeley, CA is $2.30's...  not too bad.  Cost less than $5 to put 2.1 gallons in....

[RedShift]

It's back to being close to the same price as a Gallon of Skim Milk ($2.29).

[Badger]

$2.23/gal (87 octane).  New York sucks.  

[pandy]

San Jose $2.49/gal for regular.

[Toledo Jim]

Around here gas is between $2.09 and $2.23 per gallon, 87 octane.

[RVertigo]

Still pretty high most places...  But, under the $3 mark.

Out in BFE it's pretty cheap, $2.50 range...

[A Non eMouse]

The other topics on gas prices made me search for an old one.  It's really funny reading people's posts about gas prices in 2005! 

$2.50/Gal?  HA!

[porsche4786]

Hah! yeah no kidding, those prices look good!!! I think reg was $4.18/gal this morning, didn't look on the way home.