Posted on 02/25/2012 6:12:30 PM PST by Deo volente
Gas prices climbed higher Saturday, continuing to march ever-closer to the all-time average local high of $4.60 per gallon set in 2008.
Jitters over the standoff in Iran's nuclear program have led to surging oil prices and unstable markets worldwide. Locally, a big refinery fire also hiked prices for motorists, with no end in sight.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
Just bought a used 2011 Hyundai elantra today. 40 mpg up to 47 on the highway. I have to drive 60 miles a day to work. The pick-up at 14 mpg finally was just too much. Plus the pick-up is 14 years old and I was going to have to get something a little newer anyway. Hope it is not a lemon. Dang I hate driving a car. I have drove a pick-up and a standard since I was 15. Sigh.
I can’t help but believe that the huge falloff in apparent demand recently is due to some problem in the metrics used.
What gives? The economy is taking a dive, but not that much of one.
Food prices are also going through the roof at my local supermarket. It’s astonishing how expensive some things are now. A 14.5 ox box of cereal (7 small ‘servings’) is $4.69. A 12 oz package of Bologna is selling for $5.49.
Even the cheap brands of beer go for $7.99 a six-pack.
I’m going to check out the Grocery Warehouse, where prices are lower and most of the customers speak Spanish.
You’re right, people are agitated. I’ve noticed that lately. More road rage, too.
Be careful out there.
No, there is measureable less product being sold.
The Elantra is supposed to be a pretty decent car. You probably have some kind of Warranty on it, even if it’s used.
I’m still driving my Civic with 154,000 miles. Runs great. Gets about 30 mpg.
How brutal is that?
Then throw in all the other taxes, sky high every rising food costs, rent, insurance etc., etc.
They are done.
What ever happened to the good ole days
when there were “GAS WARS”?
Wish those days were back!
We are exporting fuel due to economics. Self-imposed economics.
With demand down, the oil companies have shut down their most inefficient refineries. For the most part, they were in the Northeast.
The result left the Gulf Coast long on refined products, the Northeast short.
Normally, that would be solved by shipping the Gulf Coast's excess production to the Northeast. However, there is no pipeline capacity available to handle the task -- environmentalists having stalled expansion of the pipelines serving this route.
How about shipping it by tanker then? Too expensive. Because US law mandates that all shipments between US ports must be handled by US flag ships and fully unionized crews.
It's actually less expensive to a.) export the excess refined products from the Gulf Coast to Caribbean markets and then b.) provide the Northeast with refined products shipped from Nigeria.
A significant expansion of Colonial’s main gasoline pipeline, originating in Houston and connecting Gulf Coast refineries with markets across Colonial’s system, has been approved by the company’s Board of Directors.
http://www.colpipe.com/press_release/pr_114.asp
December 21, 2011
A 100,000 BPD capacity increase to the mainline serving the Northeast was put into operation earlier this year. This line begins in Greensboro and serves the Philadelphia, New, Jersey and New York markets.
A 75,000 BPD capacity increase to the distillate mainline is under way, with 20,000 BPD accomplished and 55,000 BPD due online by mid-2012. This line originates in Houston and terminates in Greensboro.
- - - -
Now combine that with a falling demand.
but I think we have plenty of oil....we're just being suckered and there isn't a damn thing to do about it except pay them their dirty money...
Another example (the list is countless) of government regulations killing business and the economy.
We’re drowning in red tape and government control, and Obama represents more of it. Exponentially more.
Where there’s a will there’s a way, but many will just throw up their hands and fall into the ever-expanding safety net, which benefits Obama.
Those who continue to work in low paying positions while attempting to remains self sufficient will end up on scooters, which is something I’ve witnessed here over the past couple of years. They’ll end up in combined households, whether that’s renting rooms out in their own houses or ending up doing so in someone else’s. And they’ll end up relying on private charity in the form of church food banks and aid societies, when monetary emergencies strike. That will happen more and more.
It can’t continue for long, in other words. Something will give. Whether it’s favorable to the existing trajectory or a rejection of it, that’s the big question.
I would take the falling sale of gasoline a better indication of the real strength of the economy than the media and government reports.
Ya know, every time the GOP wants to drill [like in 2008], we hear from the DEMs:
"Oh, it'll take three years to get the oil into production" ...
Or, if we want to build more nuclear plants:
"Oh, it'll take ten years for them to come on-line" ...
WELL, if we HAD started drilling in 2008 AND we HAD started building more nuclear plants in 2002 - WE WOULD HAVE THEM BY NOW !!!
BTW - MORE than 60% of France's electric power is nuclear - about the ONLY THING the Frogz got right ...
“More road rage, too.
Be careful out there.”
You, too. I noticed the road rage at full steam a week ago, when I went out for something at night. I ended up taking a back way, but at that, saw three accidents.
Hey Boop
You are not listing...
Obama told us to put more air in your tires to get better gas mileage.
Demand didn’t decline that much with the first wave of the financial crisis in 08 - 09. People were terrified then, at least here they were. It’s not as bad this time. Maybe we’ve just been ground down and are accustomed to it by now, while much of the rest of the country is getting its first taste of what we went through then? It just doesn’t stand to reason, to me.
While it sounded almost flippant and dismissive at the time (and was), overinflating your tires actually does increase fuel mileage. Careful though, wet traction is negatively impacted, the car can feel darty and less stable, and braking distance can be increased. If you really get carried away, risk of blowout is increased and irregular tire wear becomes a problem.
“Something’s very wrong here. We’re being fleeced.”
YES, WE ARE, by Obama’s monetary policy, that has pumped so much liquidity (Printed Dollars) in to the markets in the last few months, that it has SIGNIFICANTLY DEVALUED THE DOLLAR, vs other currencies, especially oil-based ones, like the Canadian Dollar.
$1 Canadian now equals $1.001 US Dollars.
In 2008, it was around $.80 US Dollars.
We get around 24% of ALL of our oil from Canada.
But hey, as long as the Ponzi Scheme lasts past the Novenber election, it’s all good. Right?
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