Remember how I lamented over $3.40/gallon gas?
May 6, 2008 by wellheeled
Silly, silly me.
Only 2 months ago, I was filling up for less than $3.50 a gallon. Now the gas in my area has shot up to $3.85+, and on the way home I saw some stations with $3.99/gal. (I use regular unleaded).
I think I can handle $4/gal gas (but the pain… the pain!). But $5 a gallon? $6? Who knows how high gas can go. The upshot? Maybe people will start driving less, so… the roads will be clearer!
When I was delivering pizza in 2003, the drivers were near mutiny over the $2/gallon gas prices. It seems quaint now.
Also, a few years back when gas prices had dropped a bit temporarily, I took a picture of gas I bought in Lodi that cost me $0.99. WHY DIDN’T I BUY IN BULK?!?!
Tell me about it! I was looking at my budget last night, and realized I have gone over-budget on gas for two months in a row now. I guess its time to adjust it! Good thing my insurance went down…
Its funny, a few months ago I was debating what areas in the city I’d consider moving to when I decide to buy a home. The gas issue has helped me limit that…I’m hoping to find something close to our rail system now!!
[...] the way, Well-heeled also posted about gas today. I guess its on everyone’s mind nowadays! [...]
It’s still about $3.50 where I am. I foresee it rising here soon, though.
It is $1.30 a Litre where I am which is about $5 USD a gallon.
I was out driving the other day and I saw it for 3.29 (here it is 3.35) and I was so excited. Never thought that day would be here. I remember 10 years ago I bought gas for 1.00 a gallon.
What is also sad is that politicians are pushing for a gas tax holiday instead of investigating the price gauges that have supported record breaking profits for oil companies and investors.
Folks will go hoopla for a day thinking they are getting something when in fact, the tax covers public transportation and roads so they’ll be punishing themselves without even considering it. It will be like shopping at Walmart.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/05/hillaryclinton.uselections2008
Nice blog btw.
Here a litre is about 0.65 USD, so for a gallon we’re paying about 2.47 USD and we keep sayin’: ¡Damn! Gas is too expensive. I love to hate my country, yes sir. I am wondering about taxe because we also keep ourselves crying… death and taxes….
Rising oil prices: this is just the beginning.
Tch. You have worse to come.
http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/05/09/chronicles-of-depression-20-090/
Honestly, I know it must be tough for you Americans to stomach $4 gas, or $5, or $6. But Europeans are already paying $8 or $9 or more! I guess it is all relavtive to what you’re used to.
http://shazgood.wordpress.com/2008/04/04/gas-at-330/
Er, why dont you just get a smaller more efficient car, or a bike, or some of those old fashioned ‘leg’ things. Geez, have you people not even heard of climate change, or do you just have no morale framework which prohibits this kind of self-absorbed behaviour which is permenantly damaging the climate system?
Come live in the UK unleaded is about $10 a gallon
Diesel in the Uk is £1.23 a litre
I think 5 dollar a gallon gas is a real possibility. Obviously 4 dollars a gallon will happen, but 5 is just a guess for me and yet I still think it will happen.
I’ll be mad when I drive to my sister’s house and if I end up spending 400 dollars driving… I might as well took the plan (or train) and drove from the station)
Its only going to get better if we drill drill drill for oil everywhere we can including ANWAR and the continental shelf of the USA. ……….Now I can hear the reader saying but we can not because of environ-MENTAL reasons………………..and then the reader should hear the future answering: JUST WAIT TILL THEY GET TIRED OF THE HIGH PRICES OF GAS……………………soon we will solve the energy problems by burning environmentalists at the stake to heat our homes.
And in case your previous commentor does not know it……… Global Warming is a scam and the people who believe it are hysterically uncool. They elect themselves petroleum hall monitors and try to bully the other kids with their hall monitor environmental badges. ………………. And have you noticed how cool it is ALL OVER THE WORLD THIS YEAR ?
I remember when I was 8 and the gas was $0.79
At the time, there was some news story ridiculing Britain for having $5/gal gas. Now the US is following them with the tiny cars (mostly).
I am just glad I go to school in the city!
When in the USA in 2001 for a holiday, I drove 35,000 miles through 43 states and the most expensive fuel I saw was $2.65/gallon … in Death Valley where one would expect it to be exorbitant due to the transport costs (and lack of options - if you need fuel, are you NOT going to buy it in a place called Death Valley?!?!?
The average fuel price was $1.43/gallon but we got it as low as $1.21/gallon in some northern states. At the time, we were paying $3.82/gallon back in Australia so the USA seemed to be the land of cheap fuel.
What I find most interesting is that in the past 7 years we’ve gone from $3.82/gallon to $5.70/gallon (50% increase) in Australia whereas the USA has gone from $1.43/gallon to $3.85/gallon (270% increase). And that’s just to reach parity with Australia’s price from 7 years ago!
Oops! I note an error in my previous post. The reference to 270% should be 170%.
In Canada we are paying $1.30 a litre, so appox. $5.20 a US gal.
I must admit being a little envious of your price.
For those of you who wonder why the USA fuel price is so cheap, one easy answer, their government does not tax the heck out of the product at the pump.
All countries buy crude on the world commodity markets, its the government that puts the taxes on it that cause you to pay the high price at the pump. So if you are suffering higher prices than the USA look no further than your government and put the blame on them.
Wow. In Puerto Rico we pay $0.90 a liter right now. I guess we shouldn’t complain.
Wow, I wish we had your prices over here in the UK, if I’m right your current prices would be £0.44 per litre compared to our current prices of £1.30.
In your money thats you current price of $3.40 compared to ours of $9.84
The problem is NOT the oil companies! After all, the oil companies have a profit MARGIN of about 8%. Banks, drug companies, and software companies (among other industries) have much higher profit margins, yet no one is screaming that those industries are price gouging.
Plus, the single biggest cost of gasoline is the cost of a barrel of oil. Crude oil makes up over 60% of the cost of gasoline, and that’s the cost that the oil companies have to pay to get the crude…and that’s before it gets refined. If their cost has gone way up, do you expect them to just eat the cost increase out of the goodness of their hearts? Here’s a news flash for the economically illiterate: businesses pass cost increases on to consumers!
The gas price problem lies mainly on three main fronts: treehuggers who would rather we remain dependent on oil from volatile parts of the world instead of farming our own; worldwide demand; and the leeches known as speculators.
EnvironMENTALists have sold the world on this junk science fad known as global “warming”, but all that is is just a cover for their anti-American anti-capitalist agenda. Just look at Kyoto: China and India can pollute at will, but America has to wreck its economy? No thanks. Even Canada isn’t meeting its agreed-upon targets, and it looks like they have no intention of doing so. Anywho, the treehuggers won’t let us get our own oil, so we have to keep begging the weirdbeards at OPEC for more oil to run OUR country.
Worldwide demand for oil is up, even though demand in America is down. Countries like China, India, and Brazil have emerging economies, and they’re buying more oil now like there’s no tomorrow. As a result, worldwide demand is way up.
Speculators are arguably the biggest problem. These vultures are creating their own wealth through highly dishonest tactics, and they contribue absolutely nothing to the oil-to-consumer process. Here’s how:
Let’s say I come over to your house and breathlessly warn you that a fire is rapidly approaching your house (even though I know it’s not true). Fortunately for you, I just so happen to have bought a firehose (that I paid $10 for at The Firehose Store). I will sell you (or lease you) the firehose for $100. After a convincing sales pitch, you believe me and say “Wow, $100 is kinda steep, but I need to save my house! OK, I’ll take the hose.” The fire never comes, and I just profited $90 off of feeding you a load of crap. I created my own lies-based wealth, and I added nothing of value to your life’s equation.
Was that a normal case of “supply and demand”? No! Demand was artificially, and knowingly so, inflated by the speculator in order to make a profit. That, my friends, is what is happening right now with this commodities market speculation, especially with food and oil. Speculators pump their money into the commodities market by buying low, they convince the producers that conditions suck in order to get the producers to jack their prices up, then they sell high and profit off the mess they created.
Speculators helped create the real estate mess by driving the price of homes up to irrational levels, and the correction came, hurting a bunch of people in the process (after most speculators cashed in first, though). Not content with having damaged the real estate sector, they’re now setting their sights on inflicting pain and suffering on the food and energy sectors. Is this really what capitalism is about? Frankly, I don’t think so.
So don’t blame the oil companies. Blame the bunnyhuggers and the vermin speculators.
Don’t drive so much and stop complaining about it. You could stop looking for the “perfect pair of heels.” I hear keeping up with the latest trends takes money.
А у нас бензин стоит всего 0.9$/литр и если возможно подорожает, то я не думаю, что будет стоить дороже, чем 1.19$/литр
Tell me about it. I drive over 516 miles per week to commute to and from my Ph.D. program. Yikes! That is about two full tanks a week.
“don’t drive so much”, etc etc. If you live in north america, driving is often not optional. I didn’t create suburbs etc, but living in one I can’t realistically walk anywhere unless I plan it as a whole day thing. Taking public transport, takes about an extra hour each way and is not exactly cheap. Costs more than what I spend in gas. And, no I don’t drive an SUV or a minivan. Subaru Legacy.
As for moving closer to work, I’d love to but, I work in the city where house prices are unfordable by me.
Currently gas is 4.739/US Gallon or 1.252/liter in Toronto, Canada.
I share Well-heeled’s hope (though not a very strong one) that high gas prices will lead to less people on the roads. I remember a few years ago when anything over $2/gallon seemed crazy!
But people have to get where they’re going somehow, and often in a city (like Los Angeles, where I live) there aren’t many ways around driving. For example, I live approximately 3.5 miles away from my job, but due to the inadequacies of our public transportation syster, I would have to leave my apartment by 6:25am in order to make it to work by 8 if I rode the bus. I’d love to bike, but the roads in Los Angeles are also not biker-friendly - traffic is insane, drivers are incompetent (and scary), and streets are often poorly lit. So I guess my real hope is that higher gas prices will lead more people to get out of their cars and push the city of Los Angeles to actually come up with a viable long-term solution, such as more frequent buses and more extensive bus routes, or safer biking conditions (well, biking would automatically become a little more safe with less people on the road). Of course, for people in other cities I can’t really speak.
And yeah, I know that people in other countries are paying much higher prices for gas. And some countries are paying much less. Either way, $4 or 5 or 6 a gallon is still a lot of money, and is just one demonstrative of the way that the cost of living is ever-rising - and unfortunately my income isn’t.