Posted on 02/12/2009 8:59:45 AM PST by EagleUSA
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Oil prices slid closer to a new multiyear low Thursday because of growing doubts that the $789 billion stimulus package will reinvigorate the economy and demand for energy.
Retail gas prices, meanwhile, reached a new high for 2009 on Thursday and appeared headed back to $2 a gallon as refiners cut back on production.
Light, sweet crude for March delivery fell $1.04 to $34.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.61 overnight to settle at $35.94 after a government report on Wednesday showed that crude inventories jumped much more than expected.
There were also more signs of economic weakness.
The number of people requesting first-time unemployment benefits dropped slightly last week, but remained near a 26-year high as companies lay off thousands of workers amid a deepening recession. The Commerce Department said the number of initial jobless benefit claims dropped to a seasonally adjusted 623,000, from an upwardly revised figure of 631,000 the previous week.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Sounds to me like your state is kicking in a tax from a previous legislative year. Many states do this, increase gas taxes to come into effect 1 or 2 years after the tax was voted in.
My own state did this this year also, came into effect Jan, 1. Raised the price by 15 cents, regardless of the market.
I live in Calif., so I’m sure we got a new tax.
“...howcome gas is still 2.18/gal here in Seattle???...”
Because of price gouging. No one can convince me otherwise this time around.
1. Bought a smaller, gas efficient car (me, a Mini Cooper)
2. Started combining trips and reduced travel
3. Lost their job and/or got in financial trouble
Demand is down 30% to 40% from a year ago...
Gotcha, looks like we may be near a market bottom.
$1.00 per gallon is huge, I don’t think they could ever get away with that, if they do 2010 will look very good for us IMHO.
I know our county is looking at bumping up gas taxes,no end to it.
Yeah. I’ve been watching crude prices and as they continue to drop, gas prices are actually increasing.
DAm,30-40% is huge.
That's because there are some other steps involved between crude oil and gasoline. Expecting the two to always follow one another is like expecting the price of cars to follow the price of steel.
Here's an article that explains a bit of what's going on.
Instead of whining about it, you could just stop driving. There's a serious amount of gimme in this thread.
When governments see a drop in price, they often jump in with a tax. The argument is that it stabilizes the market, but in actuality, it just increases taxes. They do it when the price drops because consumers don’t tend to notice the tax increase when the relative cost out of pocket remains the same.
I had a feeling it was something like that. During the runup in price I drastically reduced all unnecessary driving, combining trips, etc. I got used to it. Meanwhile, it will soon be bike commute time for me so my monthly gas bill should drop to almost nothing.
>>Instead of whining about it, you could just stop driving. There’s a serious amount of gimme in this thread.<<
Heh, heh. See my post 74. :)
Yes.
The almost-5-dollar-a-gallon prices in the recent past did a marvelous job of focusing consumers' attention on conserving gasoline. If nothing else, it was a valuabale educational experience.
$1.95 north of there.
Still waiting for Bebe to hit Iran.
gas has gone UP the last 3 weeks......it has no explanation.
Refiners are restricting gasoline production. I paid $2.44 at Shell in Palmdale on Wed.
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