Gasoline prices: the end of an era. - Page 2  

i remember when 70 cents a gallon was high 4 years ago

In Berkeley, unbelievable gas prices:
$2.65 cheapest I could find for 87.
$2.85-$2.99 is the going rate for premium 91.
No 93 octane here, smog reasons!

It's about $2.50/gallon here in southern IN.

The petroleum companies have done exactly what large corporations do: they recognized an opportunity and seized it. Obviously, their market research shows that the consumers, as a whole, are willing to pay these prices. Paying them happily is another, somewhat irrelevant, matter. I cannot fault them for having great fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders.

Let us also remember that a fair portion of each gas dollar goes to federal and state excise taxes. No editorial comment. Just stating a known fact.

What are you talking about? 70 cents in 2001? I don't ever remember it being any where near that.

I'm not trying to be funny here in the least bit,but did'nt any of your financial advisors or brokers direct you guys to purchase oil company stock? Yeah,fuel prices are very high but the stock gains way,way,way more than make up for it. That eases the pain quite a bit.

BTW, $3.19 for premium at the BP down the street from my place.

Michigan's gas prices make me want to cry. I've seen it hit about $2.85 around here, and the best I've seen was $2.03 one random day. A lot of people stood in line for that price, lemme tell ya...

Last month: 1.79$

Last week it was 2.09 for the cheap stuff here in Tulsa, OK.

This week: 2.39$

Cheap as chips!! It's $1.79 a litre in the UK <and rising> That's $8.14 for an imperial Gallon.

PS: to that guy that reckons very few people need to drive blah blah in Europe...... I'm just off to the dentist and he's 60 miles away........

vroom vroom!

That's right!
Everybody in Europe lives in big cities with amazingly cheap and efficient Public Transport!
Not many people have cars or even have a driving licence - which is fortunate because here in the UK petrol currently costs $6.41 (corrected for US measure) Gallon!
That's great because it means us Europeans use very little of your precious gas!

Phew - it's a little cheaper than that in the South-East, but not by much
Yeah, and my office is 60 miles away from my house - but I doubt that you can get the train to your dentist

Man, prices like this make me want to soooo do a diesel go-ped or a motorcycle ...Or if I could afford it, a diesel VW Corrado.

,
Abe

I remember back in the 80's when US gas prices were just going over a dollar for the first time. The pumps were not set up to show the full price, like your signs. Some pumps had all the numbers, but the cut out wasn't big enough to show them all.

I noticed gas at my other town was up to $2.49 today. At home here it was $2.65. Both for regular gas at the major retailers. At home they are all major retailers and everybody has the same price.

We've long passed the point where OPEC has any serious impact on prices at all. Two OPEC nations are currently pumping above their long term sustainable production capacity; only Saudi Arabia has any spare capacity at all, and that's low quality crude.

According to the International Energy Agency, worldwide demand for crude exceeded worldwide production of crude in the first quarter of 2005. All the other factors that people are blaming (OPEC, speculation, refineries, etc.) are all secondary issues compared to the core supply and demand problem. Prices will rise when production does not increase as fast as demand. It's classic economics.

That's not to say that some of the secondary issues are not important, especially the refining problem. But the core issue is supply and demand for raw crude.

That's mostly hot air at this point. If people really cared about oil prices, they would lobby the government to do something to lower the demand side of the equation (there isn't a lot more that can be done on the supply side -- ANWR oil is at least three years away from coming online, and it's a drop in the bucket relatively speaking; similarly, the massive oil sands projects in Alberta won't reach full capacity for 10 years).

Instead, nothing is being done. The US tax break for fuel-efficient hybrids is being phased out while the tax break for Hummers is being kept. SUVs are still exempt from all but the lowest CAFE standards (which did help reduce the US' dependence on foreign oil after the second oil crisis). Many US cities significantly cut back funds for public transportation during the recent recession.

And the sad thing is, sensible policies could make a difference. There is no need to ban SUVs or do anything drastic, but sensible policies are needed. As much as I hate to say anything good about taxes, marginally higher fuel taxes in Canada (nothing as high as Europe) have encouraged people to buy more fuel efficient vehicles, and have encouraged manufacturers to offer more of them. The 41 mpg (highway) Toyota Echo Hatchback is the 4th best selling vehicle in Canada but isn't even offered in the US. The Smart Car has been selling well in Canada and isn't even offered in the US. Half of the VW vehicles sold in Canada are diesels, yet diesel VWs are not available in some states.

This has been coming for a log time. So what? We are Americans.