Posted on 04/11/2011 3:49:05 PM PDT by NRG1973
Soaring gas prices are starting to take a toll on American drivers.
Across the country, people are pumping less into the tank, reversing what had been a steady increase in demand for fuel. For five weeks in a row, they have bought less gas than they did a year ago.
Drivers bought about 2.4 million fewer gallons for the week of April 1, a 3.6 percent drop from last year, according to MasterCard SpendingPulse, which tracks the volume of gas sold at 140,000 service stations nationwide.
The last time Americans cut back so much was in December, when snowstorms forced people to stay home.
Before the decline, demand was increasing for two months. Some analysts had expected the trend to continue because the economic recovery was picking up, adding 216,000 jobs in March.
"More people are going to work," said John Gamel, director of gasoline research for MasterCard. "That means more people are driving and they should be buying more gas."
Instead, about 70 percent of the nation's major gas-station chains say sales have fallen, according to a March survey by the Oil Price Information Service. More than half reported a drop of 3 percent or more - the sharpest since the summer of 2008, when gas soared past $4 a gallon. Now it's creeping toward $4 again.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.excite.com ...
Gas prices are creeping up, gas prices are inching up, gas slightly rising, etc.
Whereas under Bush, the phrases were:
SOARING PRICES AT THE PUMP!, GAS PRICES SKYROCKET, FOOD OR GAS?,etc.
You get the picture.
Looked at my records. $3.98 on 4/15 and a high for the year of $4.71 for diesel on July 1, 2008. It was $3.95 a gallon here in Houston today.
Won’t last long, the economy will crash again soon. I expect it will be brutal but then again, we may have seen the “maintenance” level of employment already.
Sorry, I don't get where you are coming from. Are you suggesting prices should be higher to stop people from doing what you disagree with, or are you being facetious? Those of us who need to drive lots of miles to do our jobs are getting killed. This seems to me to another anti-business move by the clueless non-business people that fill the administration. Subsidize Brazil? Are they nuts?
We’re supposed to be using rickshaws and bicycles, as we descend to the level of Red Chinese peasants...
Who’d a thunk it?
“All he has to do is keep his “base” happy, and the heck with all us evil rich (anyone with a job) people.”
He’d better get working on keeping that base happy; public school teachers (at least the senior tenured ones) are the only people NOT worse off than 30 months ago. Ethnic minorities and unwed mothers buy gas as well; they have no cause to rejoice...
/s
I bet we will see in rural America the Red Neck Road trains, owners of several cars or trucks using a tow strap between each other.
The lead vehicle does all the pulling while the rest just use brakes, stereo or cell phone charging.
And then when they approach the city they just disconnect and go there merry little way to work.
So the next time you see 10 vehicles all towing each other think of American ingenuity.
The big factor is the declining value of the dollar.
Gas prices won’t come down as long as the value of the dollar is plunging.
The dollar can’t recover as long as Obama and Bernanke keep putting more and more dollars into circulation.
The skyrocketing gasoline prices are what we will soon see happen to food and other consumer goods. In fact, it has already begun.
Right about now is a good time to mention the idea of adding a little pure acetone to gasoline. The theory is no more than 3 oz (shot glasses) to 10 gallons of gas will improve mileage. More than that doesn’t work.
While it clearly won’t hurt most fuel systems or engines, both Myth Busters and Snopes claim it doesn’t do anything. But a lot of people claim anecdotally that it does, and pretty impressively, from 20-30% better mileage for typical city driving.
I’ve tried it in both a large, 4D sedan and a 4D economy car, and noticed enough improvement to make it worth my while when gas is over $3/gal. Below that price I discontinue it, in case there are any long term effects, but I haven’t seen any.
While some people get passionate on both sides of the argument, I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt as long as it shows results.
I haven’t been particularly impressed by the tests “debunking” it, either, as they do not replicate fuel consumption during city driving very well. That is, it might work best when idling, or accelerating, or decelerating, uphill or down. But if it works during *any* of these periods, it still can provide substantial savings.
$3.79, up from $3.55 overnight. SO what would cause it to go up that much in one f’n day??? This is in San Antonio. What will start happening is the families already strapped living paycheck to paycheck will start using credit cards for gas, effectively paying $6-8 a gallon by the time they get them paid off, if they even do that. Then what happens when the cards get maxed out? Food is steadily following along. Unlike the Federal Leviathan, we all have credit limits. The time is ripe in this country.
I’m saying that prices aren’t yet at a breaking point when average people are still willing to burn gas to blow their driveway instead of using a broom. To me, it means gas is still being used in casual, non-essential ways, which means the price isn’t high enough to really hurt yet.
That’s what I’m talking about.
People that have fixed mileage to and from work are getting hurt
LOL...consider it stolen.
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