Gas Prices to Go UP UP UP!
 

Hint: Americans drive their cars more in the summer, which makes it the best time for the people selling it to raise the price for maximum profit.

This has happened every spring since I can remember.
What's different about this year? The Saudis are gouging their friends, the U.S. oil companies (probably with undisclosed tax-free kickbacks), who in turn do it to us - with an additional profit tacked on.

Every year this is treated by the news media as something mysterious; a half-hearted investigation is done by the friends of the oil companies, and the result is always that there was no wrongdoing or price fixing. Right.

And every year we believe it, pay outrageous (to Americans) gas prices while we take our vacations, and in the fall, the prices mysteriously fall back to only slightly higher than last year.

Operation iraqi didn't work then.....:rolleyes:

Who the hell do we need to invade to get some decent gas price around here?

if only electric cars weren't so lame...

you americans... your eyes would pop out on stalks if you saw what we pay for gas.

*glad he doesn't drive an suv*

We should be paying 3 to 4 dollars a gallon here. Tax the fuck out of it. Instead of mandating tighter mpg standards, just make it good policy for the automakers to find a better way.
Not many navigators and expeditions sold that way. More Prius and Civics though.

3 - 4 dollars is closer to the true cost of driving in this country anyway with the military needs to defend and fight for the resources and the true impact on our infrastructure and environment. Still well below, but closer.

Really, I don't know why some Americans think they have a right to cheap gasoline!

Adjusted for inflation over the past 20 years, gasoline is still not that expensive. If it truly were, we'd stop wasting so much of it. I don't care what anyone chooses to drive, that's their decision. But don't whine about high gas prices if you choose to drive something that gets 15 mpg.

We spend a lot more on price controlled Milk and orange juice and apple juice.
Hell bottled water costs more than gasoline.

Yet everyone complains about the gas.

Thank god cars don't run on Whiteout....

Yeah, everytime I want to complain about gas prices, I remember that it's 4x as expensive in Europe

That's because we don't buy 14 gallons of bottled water at a time and it's necessary to drive. Well, at least I don't, I don't trust that shit. Gimme some EB mud anyday.

But the people who can afford Navigators and Expeditions don't give a rat's ass about the price of gas.
Also - don't forget that if we did pay that much, flying would only be for the wealthy. Continental just added $15 each way to the price of its tickets - just for this little recent increase - doubling the price of gas would make air travel too expensive for a lot of people.

While I agree with your point, I think Continental repealed their fare hikes. Read something about that today in the paper.

Can't most europeans afford to fly? They pay a bootyload for gas. I guess i don't really follow.

Anyways, the shitty thing is people who don't care about the price of gas are collectively upping demand by driving low mpg suv's and contributing to the increased prices, thereby bending over the average, cost conscious sedan driver. Typically american, though.

I don't really know the answer to that, either. Perhaps the European governments don't tax jet fuel as heavily as gasoline (jet fuel is basically diesel fuel). Or perhaps it's subsidized.
But in the United States, when gas prices go up, so do airline ticket prices.

This sucks. Some people, like my dad and I, own a lawn care business. These gas prices are killing us, and I've gotta help pay for college somehow next fall. :(

I write off the cost of fuel, so I could care less if it costs more.

Get one of those manual drum blade lawn mowers. :)
No gas, and little maintenance.

All I can say is that anyone who drives an SUV & doesn't work in contruction or on a farm is just simply an ignorant & selfish fool because it's BushCo & oil pals who control gas prices in the US. They have for a very long time. They pay to make you to think that it's Your "American Birthright" to drive a gas guzzling road hog like an SUV. God Bless the Amercun Cars & Trucks! (Safety - yeah right?! Can you say manipulated data? Now smile bud as we ream your butt good) It's so you the Faithful but dumb Amercun can fill Their pockets with cash $$$. Most of us who understand the way the gas/oil comsumption "is controlled" here in the US are resigned to looking for those smarter alternatives & hybrids (so elequently lost in Patent Hell...) and we hope to buy & drive smart hybrids soon! Anyhow, 85% of the gas in pumps in the US is actually coming from Venezuela and the off shore rigging around Central America - where the US Corps. incidentally Own those oil rigs and corporate "cousins". Having been an EE at Haliburton, Texas in the early 80's I speak from experience. Oh yeah, if this is my last post you'll KNOW I was telling the truth....


Also just for the coup de gras, in some northern EU countries they sell gas based upon what you do - if your a framer and have a Harvester, you will get cheaper gas. But then they're smart enough to provide fun, fast & clean public transportation. C'mon, why do you think the US stopped substidizing our Train rail system in the US?? It worked too well in Europe.

Them announcing cuts won't exactly help or hurt prices. What controls prices is the actual supply on hand and the OPEC member nations tend to cheat (especially with the oil price as high as it is now).

Be aware that OPEC has No control over the Fuel Products actually being marketed & consumed (and manipulated) in the continental U.S.

As a nation, we must get a firm grip on the reality of this power structure. Oh yeah, and don't forget all the oil in Alaska we have sitting on hold. Let's design those Hyrids - and make them look sleeker and hot & Soon!

http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,259672,00.jpg

Seems nice enough to me :) (Yeah, yeah, technically it's hybrid, big deal)

Electric cars eat up a lot of juice and ya gotta recharge em after every trip. Then again, how many "gas" stations are there out for electric cars? Practically none around Southern Alberta.

Of course they look lame now....just wait - if enough people get into them the designs will evolve faster. A natural phenom. And so form follows function, not a bad way to design anything worth while.....
My friend just got the Prius that's electric & runs on gas (smart) and he said that this month he only spent 12 dollars on gas and he travelled 662 miles in 4 weeks time. He plugs it in at night at home. His wife said it's so quiet that the tunes sound great while cruising. And no emission to speak of which really makes me want to check one out.

I just paid $2.20 per gallon two days ago here in N. Ca. and I'm tired of spending so much cash as the pump. And my mid sized Mazda is great on gas, averaging about 32 to 36 miles per gallon when I check & remain tuned up.

Demand from Asia.

I didn't know the Prius could be plugged in and recharged! Cool, but from what I read they aren't SULEV and actually do put out more nasties than some of the more strictly controlled emissions of various Honda and Toyota models.

My wife and I are excited now that they finally made a hybrid Civic.

http://images.google.com/images?q=tb...de_415x268.jpg

Yeah baby!

ah, bummer. I can't post the picture of the souped up hybrid civic I just built. Go here to build your own and see how badass they are.

Yes, I believe that when I wrote this -gas prices were 1.40 a gallon now -it's up to 1.90 around here.

i want a hybrid car

Nice policy there. People who can afford large SUVs won't give a fuck about paying $80 instead of $40 to fill up. But people who can barely afford to pay $15 to fill up their old Escort to get to work will have a much bigger problem paying $30. I thought you liberals were always looking out for the working class?

Buy one of these and only ever spend no ore then $10 on gas every time you fill up.
http://www.mc-kompaniet.se/bilder/ny...000.silver.jpg

Gas has hit $2.059/gallon here. I think the increase is silly. To raise it THAT much in such a short amount of time is assinine. Six months agao, I was paying 1.599/gallon. And I haven't gotten a raise in 18 months. I drive 45 miles a day just for work. Sure, it doesn't sound like much, and I don't drive an SUV or a truck, but the $0.45/gallon increase translates in to extra money that isn't budgeted. By the time a week is done, I've probably gone through 25 gallons of gasoline. Doesn't sound like much? That's an extra $600/yr. And that's if I don't take long trips, which I do about three times a year.

EDINBURGH: This time last year, global equity markets were rising strongly in the aftermath of the Iraq war. There was relief at the short duration of the conflict and widespread confidence that the situation in the Middle East would improve. Oil prices were also widely expected to fall. Both expectations have been proved wrong. Tension across the Middle East is if anything higher. Fears of terrorist attacks on oil installations in the Gulf have helped propel the oil price to a 13-year high. Ironically, the one oil -producing country not enjoying any benefit from this surge is Iraq. And so much for those conspiracy theories that the U.S. only attacked the regime to engineer a fall in the oil price to help U.S. business. It is the failure of the coalition to have worked on a post-war strategy for Iraq that has helped drive the oil price close to all-time highs and to threaten world recovery. Dearer oil poses a direct and immediate threat to the industrial, transport and travel sectors of the Group of Seven advanced economies. It forces up key raw material costs for business. And it has a wider if more diffuse effect on the general level of inflation. There is now a hardening expectation that US interest rates will be raised next month, sooner than previously expected. And across Asian stock markets, prices fell sharply on concern that dearer oil could bring China's booming economy to a shuddering halt. As worrying for President Bush is the potential political impact of dearer oil: American consumers do not take at all kindly to rising prices at the pumps.
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Worrying though this slide in confidence is, the situation by no means justifies a blind sell-off. Dearer oil in time works in much the same way as an interest-rate hike and should mitigate the pressure for further rises later in the year. More immediately, the leading OPEC producer Saudi Arabia called yesterday on the oil cartel to raise supply limits by at least 1.5 million barrels a day, or just over 6 per cent, to prevent high prices derailing global economic growth. There is talk of an output increase of as much as two million barrels a day at the next OPEC meeting scheduled for 3 June.
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The Saudi call helped to cool the oil-price frenzy yesterday. But much now critically depends on the US-led coalition getting a grip on events, rather than being caught almost every day at their mercy. The Scotsman

http://www.iht.com/articles/519602.html

Gas in the US is still far cheaper than the 5 dollars/pounds per gallon or more you pay over in the UK and elsewhere in Europe

I found this article that blames China for the rise in oil prices.


http://www.forbes.com/business/energ...tr1368346.html

yeah they are lots of fun to drive in the winter on ice and snow. And chicks dig scars.

I want one! No ice or snow in my neck of the woods :D (yes, even in winter)

That's right. It's the poor (just a generalization) that will suffer the most from a huge gas tax. Can't buy new cars; stuck driving 15 year old jalopys, which cart them the miles from their home to their minimum wage jobs. I know, it's maddening to see all these pseudo-riche in their big ass SUVs adding all the stupid shit that money can buy, but a lot of us drive SUVs. In some cases, we use them according to their purpose and in some cases a 15 year old bronco is all we can afford.

To be fair, we do a lot to protect the oil over there. To paraphrase Jon Stewart; We deserve the employee discount.

My 110 is holding steady at about $5 a gallon, heh heh. This IS all the more reason for me to start looking for a used CBR though...

I know a guy who drives an old Town Car because it's all he can afford (his parents gave it to him). He sometimes goes without lunch so he can afford to keep gas in it to get to work.

But I guess in the liberal view of the world, everyone can afford to buy a brand new 50 mpg hybrid, and anyone who doesn't is a rich evil Republican who deserves to be soaked with high gas prices.

Man I want a hybrid Civic so bad!