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Average Gas Prices Climb to a New Record {What's Your Plan?]
Edmunds Inside Line ^ | 05-07-2007 | Staff

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.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: gas; oil
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To: Sleeping Beauty

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”.;-)


41 posted on 05/08/2007 8:51:54 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (When someone burns a cross on your lawn the best firehose is an AK-47.)
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To: Brad Cloven

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.


42 posted on 05/08/2007 8:51:54 AM PDT by ClaireSolt (Have you have gotten mixed up in a mish-masher?)
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To: lesser_satan
4) Educate the public to the fact that 95% of production vehicles run less efficiently on gasoline with octane rating above 87 and having three different grades at the pump drives prices up

You learn something every day at Free Republic. I had no idea....

43 posted on 05/08/2007 8:52:32 AM PDT by Sleeping Beauty
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To: Sleeping Beauty

No, no need (35 MPG average isn’t too shabby), not too far away (15 miles), and most defnitely yes.


44 posted on 05/08/2007 8:53:17 AM PDT by jpl
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To: Sleeping Beauty
What's Your Plan?

Drill for oil in my own backyard. I'll just lie to my neighbors and tell them that I'm "shooting at some food".

45 posted on 05/08/2007 8:53:17 AM PDT by lowbridge
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To: Sleeping Beauty

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.


46 posted on 05/08/2007 8:53:43 AM PDT by Leftism is Mentally Deranged
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To: Sleeping Beauty

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.


47 posted on 05/08/2007 8:53:58 AM PDT by Xenalyte (Cheese . . . milk's leap toward immortality.)
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To: RC2

Your horses are going to have to wear Pampers to go out in public doncha know?


48 posted on 05/08/2007 8:54:28 AM PDT by o_zarkman44 (No Bull in 08!)
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To: Don Corleone
I thought that Bush’s war was for oil. What did I miss here?

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.

49 posted on 05/08/2007 8:55:11 AM PDT by Sleeping Beauty
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To: ErnBatavia

You would get even better mileage in the back of my F-250.
Watch out for the front bumpers however.


50 posted on 05/08/2007 8:55:46 AM PDT by o_zarkman44 (No Bull in 08!)
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To: Sleeping Beauty

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.


51 posted on 05/08/2007 8:55:49 AM PDT by listenhillary (Democrats are sacrificing civilization for political power)
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To: roylene
Wow if only I could pay 3.18 a gallon I filled up yesterday at 3.79.

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....

52 posted on 05/08/2007 8:57:43 AM PDT by Cold Heat (Mitt....2008)
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To: TexasAg1996

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.


53 posted on 05/08/2007 9:00:26 AM PDT by Bryan24 (When in doubt, move to the right....)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

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.


54 posted on 05/08/2007 9:00:30 AM PDT by Sleeping Beauty
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To: eyedigress

If you put additives in the gas, you can store it for quite some time.


55 posted on 05/08/2007 9:03:35 AM PDT by MD_Willington_1976
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To: Brad Cloven
For Bonus Points — Riddle me this: Why do gasoline prices go up then crude prices drop? And why do gas prices go down when crude prices go up?

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.

56 posted on 05/08/2007 9:04:41 AM PDT by CMAC51
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To: Sleeping Beauty
I'm thinking about one of these for the weekly commute...



Don't feel like paying $100 a week for gas this year.
57 posted on 05/08/2007 9:06:08 AM PDT by rock_lobsta (Doing my part to warm up the planet... Because Bikinis Beat Burkas!)
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To: mysterio

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.


58 posted on 05/08/2007 9:06:20 AM PDT by Howard Jarvis Admirer (Howard Jarvis, the foe of the tax collector and friend of the California homeowner)
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To: Sleeping Beauty
This is what I now use for routine daily transportation
~ 80 MPG, but a little exposed to the elements
If its raining, my 1998 Dodge Dakota subs in, but gets ~13MPG



59 posted on 05/08/2007 9:07:31 AM PDT by HangnJudge
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Interesting Chart

Unrest in the Middle East always results in higher oil prices.

60 posted on 05/08/2007 9:07:40 AM PDT by Sleeping Beauty
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