Posted on 08/15/2005 6:06:24 AM PDT by BulletBobCo
CNN) -- Gas prices surged 20 cents over the past three weeks to an all-time high of $2.50 per gallon of self-serve regular, according to a national survey.
The price surge "does smash the all-time record high for the third time this year," Trilby Lundberg, publisher of the Lundberg Survey, said Sunday.
"Crude oil has caused this jump at the pump," she said of the survey, taken August 12 at about 7,000 gas stations in every state.
"And even at the current record-breaking pump prices, gasoline demand, while not galloping, is still growing."
Oil prices rose to record highs of $67 a barrel Friday, amid concerns that demand was straining the world's capacity to pump and refine crude oil. (Full story)
Lundberg noted that if the crude oil supply remains undisrupted, "the gasoline price surge itself will probably be ending soon, if it has not already."
"Our demand for gasoline is always highest for June, July and August," she said of the summer months, when families typically take vacations. She said gasoline demand is expected to taper off after August.
(SNIP)
Though a record in absolute terms, the price is still well shy of a record, if adjusted for inflation. The peak price would have been set during the Iranian revolution in March 1981, when a gallon of gas cost about $3 in today's dollars, Lundberg said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
I don't believe in the hybrids. Small cars, subcompacts, would do almost as well and would be a lot cheaper to manufacture and maintain. Some hybrids have been on the road here in Alaska for several years. They do okay, although the cold winter cuts their efficiency most of the way down to ordinary gasoline cars of similar size.
Surely you don't really believe that's the only option. I could find a different job, move my job closer to my home (e.g. telecommute), change my work schedule (e.g. 4x10 or 3x12 instead of 5x8), carpool, trade for a smaller car, find a different home and job, ... It seems like the possibilities are limited only by my willingness to act.
When the day comes that I decide I'm "trapped" in my current home and/or job and that government intervention is the best or even a good way to get out of it, it'll be a very sad day indeed.
I didn't make any statement concerning you. I was talking about my son. We live some 20 miles from his place of work, that's 40 miles a day. The job just wasn't paying him enough to make that worthwhile.
And we can't be the only ones. I am sure a lot of lower paying jobs are losing their workers, because it's just not worth the gas to get there if you have to work a couple of hours just to pay transport.
Yes, folks: half of your gasoline bill is TAXES.
Why aren't we hearing an outcry to that effect?
No, what we HAVE is socialism: your gas prices are twice what they should be because of TAXES!!!
He. No I want everyone to drive huge SUV's cause they're safe and cry to the gmt when gas gets expensive. PS I have 8 kids and still love expensive gas because it shows the foolishness of 40 mile commutes in SUV's. SUFFER!
Yeah, keep spouting that brilliant solution on every gas thread Biblewonk. You make TONS of sense.
No it makes sense to own an SUV and bitch about gas prices.
Wholesale gasoline is close to $2.00.
If the pump price is $2.50, that leaves at most $0.50 for taxes. How does that add up to 50%?
I was wondering the same thing.
Whatever the answer is -- and I think I might be able to guess -- I'd sure like to see some proof.
Taxes that go where? To build roads or to pay to for unemployed women to have more kids? One is much more socialistic than the other.
True to a point. We just bought a little POS Hyundai to use as much as possible rather than another SUV. Problem is, all the soccer moms, who don't know how to drive as it, is are scooting around town in monster sized trucks. If my Hyundai gets hiy by one of them I can forget about it.
So, when I have my kids, which is most always, I drive the 4x4.
I agree on the gouging part especially after seeing the obscene profits being compiled across the board......sure seems to me there's plenty of oil available but it's just by "happenstance" that the prices keep rising......we know there's no such thing as collusion otherwise our crackerjack CONgressmen would be right on it......wouldn't they?
"""Yeah, it's almost 6 bucks a gallon there. It was the same way when I visited England 4 summers ago. It certainly puts things in perspective."""
Looking at it from the perspective that by the time I cross one state Europeans have crossed 7 countries, gasoline is for them a bargain compared to for we North Americans.
Whether gouging or collusion, as a capitalist, I don't have much of a problem with it.
If "big oil" chooses to hurt itself in the long run by focusing on the short run, so be it. Because, every sustained increase in the price of gasoline over and above the cost of living means someone, somewhere is making lifestyle choices to reduce the demand for oil.
Okay, the federal gas tax is 18.4 cents a gallon. Georgia state gas tax (the lowest in the country) is 7.5 cents a gallon, plus 4%--another 10 cents. What taxes are making up the other $1.14 to be half the price of a gallon of gas?
>>>When my past choices become bad choices, I don't look to government for relief.>>>
So let me get this straight. Your answer to high gas prices is for everyone living in the rural areas is to converge on the metropolitan areas? As I said, brilliant.
Suspending the market mechanism is never the answer...if it were, we would still have price controls on gasoline from the 70s.
The lack of imagination around here is surprising. I thought conservatives were better than this. "Rugged individualism" and all that...
I totally agree with you... it's just a shame that more people aren't intersted in making this country energy independent.
>>>PS I have 8 kids and still love expensive gas because it shows the foolishness of 40 mile commutes in SUV's. SUFFER!
Yeah, keep spouting that brilliant solution on every gas thread Biblewonk. You make TONS of sense.
No it makes sense to own an SUV and bitch about gas prices.>>>
What makes you think you know me? I drive a Nissan Altima which has GREAT gas mileage.
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