Summertime shocker: Gas could hit $3 a gallon

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | 1/16/04 | Lucio Guerrero

[From The Deer Stand]

I'll have to just start putting more miles on the motorcycle.

[wingster]

I'll believe it when it happens and deal with it then.

I suppose many families won't be able to go on vacation.

Let's see, hmmm, a 400 mile drive to the vacation spot; otherwise they'd fly; 400 back, 200 there, = 1,000 miles.

In a vehicle that gets 20 mpg, that'd be 50 gallons. Normally the cost, at $1.50/gal., would be $75. But now gas may be $3.00/gal. thus adding an additional $75 to the vaction!

Yup!

Cancel the vacation! Go out for that $150 family dinner at home!

Oy!

[mylife]

Damn! I thought Bushco owned all the oil /sarcasm

[LN2Campy]

yes, the "inalienable right to cheap fuel" ... how could I have missed that one in Civics class...

[Don Munn]

The laws governing the building of new refineries are so restrictive that the companies would never see a profit. So they only the use the ones they currently operate.

[wingster]

And I wonder what share of that $3.00 would be taxes?

Now it's approximately half or so! Seems to me we'd be payin' about .75 cents/gal. right now if Uncle Sam didn't have "sticky fingers."

[PersonalLiberties]

Good point wingster

[wayoverontheright]

This is complete bullcrap. The thesis completely ignores the fact that Iraq will be pumping considerably more by summer, and the Russians' refusal to play ball with OPEC. If we have price increases, it will be because of the increased demand from a burgeoning China, which should be completely offset by supply increases. Look for stable prices for a couple years yet.

[Loyal Buckeye]

What does the aging actress and former singer think of this?

[philman_36]

Build More Refineries
BUMP!

[Rightone]

Won't happen in a normal year, let alone in an election year. Gas will stay pretty much under $2/gallon.

[Petronski]

Yes, and implicit in my 'build more refineries' is the imperative to change whatever is necessary to get new refining capacity online eventually, someday, soonest possible.

In other words, whatever must be changed, must be changed.

[arete]

(Un)usual suspect ping.

Richard W.

[Thermalseeker]

Lower income folks really get hit in the wallet with high fuel prices.

And just what stops "lower income folks" from increasing their income? Laziness? Lack of developing marketable job skills? Personal choices?

Poor people, by and large, are poor because they make the choices that keep them poor, i.e., not developing job skills, making poor life choices, etc. Rich people, by and large, are rich because they make the choices that make them rich, i.e., developing marketable job skills, making good life choices, etc.

[petercooper]

government regulations require gas stations to supply more costly reformulated gasoline to reduce smog.

we need less govt, not more

[MichaelP]

I drive from Michigan to Florida in July for vacation. It's 1280 miles one way. My truck gets 13 miles a gallon so I use around 100 gallons. Thats $150.00 at 1.50 gal. So it would cost 300$ one way at 3.00$. Add double the cost in boat gas and it is a huge bite....

Mike

[Wright is right!]

"At $3.00 per gallon, it would still be cheaper, in relative terms than when I got first started driving (1979)."

Jackpot. Gas - for what it is - is the most underpriced commodity in the world. Especially when you consider that ordinary bottled water, a renewable resource, is much more expensive per gallon than gazolene.

Whenever some so-called self-described "expert" comes out and says something "COULD" happen, I immediately react that that particular even could equally NOT happen. In this case, it's just some goon wanting a little face time from a media all too willing to print anti-Dubya stories in an election year.

Michael

[JustPlainJoe]

...But I thought we went to war for OIL! That's what the news keeps telling me! Since bad old Georgie has 'colonialized' Iraq, doesn't that mean WE own all those oil wells? Gas prices should go DOWN then, shouldn't it?

[Iron Eagle]

Sure -- Bush will let gas prices soar to 3 bucks in the summer of his re-election.