Posted on 05/08/2007 8:24:39 AM PDT by Sleeping Beauty
DETROIT Gas prices have spiked to a record nationwide average of $3.07 per gallon, according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 stations nationwide.
The nationwide average for midgrade gas was $3.18, and premium was $3.28. Analysts blame the rise on higher consumption coupled with reduced output by American refineries; they also note that there are signs that rising pump prices may be peaking.
There is some discrepancy among the groups that track gas prices. Lundberg, an independent and well-respected market research company, said prices have reached a record. But the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report pegged the average U.S. price of gasoline at $3.03 per gallon on Monday morning, 3 cents short of the all-time high reached in September 2005, after Hurricane Katrina.
Meanwhile, crude oil futures are declining. They ended last week at $61.93 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, about $4.50 lower than their eight-month peak a week earlier. Retail prices generally lag the futures market, so consumers often end up paying more for gas as futures prices drop.
What this means to you: The end is probably not in sight for sticker shock at the pump.
What’s everyone crying for? Fifty years ago gas was .12 cents a gallon. The average acriculture worker in Arkansas made .25 cents an hour. So for ONE hour’s work one could buy TWO gallons of gas.
Today, the average Agriculture worker in Arkansas makes $6.00 an hour. So for ONE hour’s work one can buy TWO gallons of gas.
Problem is we drive too much.
Fifty years ago we had ONE car and Dad drove it to work.
We got to town 3 miles away only on Saturday and to
Church on Sunday (Blue laws then. Stores all closed).
We got to a bigger town 10 miles away once a month.
We got to a much larger town 30 miles away maybe twice a year.
Today, we have one car for each family member. and do lots of non job driving.
We go to town 2.5 miles three about times a day.
We go to a town 10 miles away four times a week.
We go to a town 30 miles away two or three times a month.
Plus the great increase in population from 1956 to today, each driving a car.
There is always “public transportation”.;-)
Being retired I barely drive, at all. It might affect my TV watching, because I really get annoyed when they start banging the populist drums about oil prices and I turn it off.
You learn something every day at Free Republic. I had no idea....
No, no need (35 MPG average isn’t too shabby), not too far away (15 miles), and most defnitely yes.
Drill for oil in my own backyard. I'll just lie to my neighbors and tell them that I'm "shooting at some food".
Here we go again. The yearly Spring price rise. It coincides with increased driving.
Let’s investigate the amount that we pay in taxes for each gallon.
Not really, since I gotta go where I gotta go.
Yes, because my car is in the shop and I am too old for another Texas summer without AC.
Nine miles from my real job, 50-some miles from my seasonal job.
Probably, and since I work for one that’s good.
As for the bonus, I defer to the more knowledgeable.
Your horses are going to have to wear Pampers to go out in public doncha know?
Well, if it WAS for oil, it backfired in so many ways. By next year, we won't be able to buy important sources of oil with US dollars. Then the poop will really hit the fan.
You would get even better mileage in the back of my F-250.
Watch out for the front bumpers however.
USA Average 15,000 miles a year
Average USA car 20 MPG = 750 gallons a year
$2.50 to $4.00 a gallon = $1.50
$1.50 x 750 gallons =$1125.00 per year
But this might only last from May to September or 40% of the months of the year. So now we are talking $450 a year. If you start now and save $1.89 a day for the remaining 237 day in the year, you should be fine.
Good grief.......California is so screwed up with their gas formula manipulating that consumers are paying through the nose.
I am paying 2.83 here, and I get a 3 cent discount off of that. you are paying nearly a dollar more, so I think the problem is at your end. If I were living in Cali...I would be livid....
My question is - Do the refiners WANT to build more refineries?
If I am at capacity, and am making say, $0.50 per gallon, why would I want to sink $100,000,000 into another refinery if that means that I’ll only make $0.25 per gallon because supplies are plentiful?
If I’m in the refining business, I will not do anything to make the supply go down because my profit per gallon will plummet.
Very nicely thought out response.
In the US, we have a different problem than most of the rest of the world.
The US was not really built until after the invention of the automobile. For that reason, we can’t fall back on patterns of living that are based on your own two legs.
If you put additives in the gas, you can store it for quite some time.
In today's market that is not the correct answer. Oil has become a totally speculative commodity. The price is affected by the possibility of supply problems. A headline out of the middle east can cause prices to rise without supply actually changing. Speculation is driving the price.
Gasoline prices are not being driven by speculation, they are being driven by actual supply and demand. Under normal circumstances, the refining capacity in the US is running at well over 90% and the supply of gas just meets demand. Any disruption to refinery output drops supply below demand and the price rises. Bad weather, normal maintainance, mechanical failures, winter to summer blend change overs all drag refinery output down and drive prices up.
The Katrina/Rita double whammy showed how vulnerable refining capacity is and we have not done a single thing to correct the problem over the long run. The environmentalist whacko's want $10 gasoline and if the public doesn't wake up, they are going to get it.
Find yourself a three cylinder Geo Metro with a manual transmission - the Metros are not expensive and get 50 MPG. The Geo XFI’s were rated at 58 mpg - about the same as a Toyota Prius and $23,000 cheaper. I picked up a Metro a month ago and put a new motor in it to beat the high gas prices out here - $3.54 per gallon near my house. I think it will go higher when the summer driving season starts.
Unrest in the Middle East always results in higher oil prices.
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