Rising Gas Prices

[WhatMoney]

If it's between food and gasoline the southern Californian's will choose the gas. Not that they have much choice.

[DisneyGirl]

If it's between food and gasoline the southern Californian's will choose the gas. Not that they have much choice.

So true. My husband commutes 150 miles round trip 4 times a week. Nothing in the area we live in pays anywhere close to what he makes in LA.

[Cali]

This is very true. I think being a SoCal person, one gets used to higher gas. I've been back in CA for almost 5 yrs and I don't remember gas being normal here.

Of course, Trader Joes/Whole Foods still gets a lot of my business.

If it's between food and gasoline the southern Californian's will choose the gas. Not that they have much choice.

[Chicago]

Today it was $4.509 for the cheap stuff here in Lincoln Park with premium up around $4.699. I think I saw premium at $4.799 at an Amoco near Wrigley. Just crazy. A week or so ago Chicago had the highest average price in the nation, even higher than California or Hawaii.

[AMISLANDER]

If it's between food and gasoline the southern Californian's will choose the gas. Not that they have much choice.

Being that the economic climate of FL is pretty F**** up with all the foreclosures & bankruptcies....there will be more violence here than ever when the price hits $5.....with all the construction jobs gone, those people are unable to support their substance addictions and now won't even be able to afford the gas to get to their people...oh wow...talk about trouble, throw in a possible hurricane headed for FL this summer and there'll be out & out chaos...here.

[robivi3]

We had our line-up yesterday. That is where we pick shift, days off, etc... people have actually switched shifts for the night differential (about $120.00 bi-weekly) and some have parked trucks and bought small cars which they now hand off to the wife when they get home. I have never seen so many people switch for economic purposes. Some people are now taking the bus in and Rail home, some are riding Tri Rail which is not cheap. Some are carpooling, which given the different demands can leave one looking for a ride at the end of the day. $4.06 for regular on my corner. $4.90 for diesel, alot of diesels where i work being parked.

[robivi3]

Went down, just looked at miamigasprices.com and it's $4.01 as of 7am at my corner Shell. was 4.06 yesterday.

[BankruptPinoy]

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0%2C8599%2C1809900%2C00.html

Think Gas is High? Try Europe

By BRUCE CRUMLEY/PARIS

One big reason for the difference is that European governments put a much higher tax burden on fuel than the U.S. does. State and federal taxes currently make up just 11% of the pump price in the U.S., according to the Energy Information Administration; in France and the U.K., taxes account for an average of around 70%.

Given the growing chorus of angry protests, it isn't surprising that leaders across Europe have begun scurrying for ways to provide some relief at the pump. But their margin for maneuver is limited. On Tuesday, for example, French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed suspending most value-added tax (VAT) on gas, a measure he said would mean as much as $267 million in savings per quarter to those hit hardest by fuel price increases. VAT rates on gasoline across Europe range from 15% to over 20%, so it's little wonder that Sarkozy's proposal was backed by leaders in Italy and Spain as a painless way to lower prices.

But as Sarkozy himself acknowledged, no nation among the European Union's 27 member states can make such a move without the unanimous approval of the others. Meanwhile, some observers warn that suspending VAT, like the proposed "gas holiday" for U.S. drivers, would deprive governments of sorely needed tax revenues and encourage producers to soak up most of the temporary cost cut. "Changing taxation on fuels in order to combat increasing prices would send a wrong message to producing countries," said E.U. energy spokesman Ferran Terradellas. "This would show them they could increase prices and that the citizens would have to pay."

Others suggest that such short-term efforts to reduce fuel costs send the wrong message anyway to drivers who need to cut consumption. Polls show that 70% of gas-rattled British voters are now unwilling to pay higher taxes to combat climate change. That hasn't stopped some European leaders from taking the bitter pill approach, arguing that today's pain over surging gas prices should be used to encourage longer-term environmental gain. "We don't need one-shot measures," Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, the French secretary of state for the environment, told parliament following Sarkozy's proposal, "but rather to free ourselves from oil." True enough. But that's cold comfort for truck drivers, fishermen, and summer vacationers who can't afford to fill up in the meantime.

What if the USA attacks Iran this year, as many are predicting? What will happen to fuel prices then?

Gasoline in Georgia was $4.10 a gallon and yesterday it was $3.96 a gallon and the consensus among some was relief, as some were glad to pay $3.96 instead of $4.10. Are we so easily manipulated? Will we have fuel rationing in the USA?

Talks of rationing in the UK?

Every adult in Britain should be forced to carry 'carbon ration cards', say MPs
By David Derbyshire

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1021983/Every-adult-Britain-forced-carry-carbon-ration-cards-say-MPs.html

[BankruptPinoy]

Peak oil is a scam manufactured by the oil companies to create artificial scarcity and drive up profits for transnational oil cartels. It was first originated in 1956 by Shell Oil's M. King Hubbert, who said that only one and a quarter trillion barrels of crude were left, a figure that was surpassed at the end of 2006. According to Hubbert's original calculations, the planet should already have produced its last drop 2 years ago.

The global elite want to destroy the world's middle class.

That's just my opinion. Opinons are like elbows, everyone has two.

Greg Palast of the BBC, author of "Armed Madhouse", wrote, :

Evil, not geology, has a chokehold on energy; nature is ready to give us crude at $12 a barrel where it was just a few short years ago.

[robivi3]

I agree BKpinoy, it may not be at tight conspiracy but is a conspiracy of some sort. I agree on the "peak oil" deal also. I always questioned the "dinosaur deal" even as a kid. I don't know the earthly processes and pressures that create oil fields but am convinced that it is a renewing resource. It may not renew fast enough for our consumption in areas where we already pump it out but i believe that there is alot more the deeper we go. That being said, I still like alternative sources, they are cleaner and sometimes more efficient. I still think alternative sources are definitely the way to go for anyone who thinks i am not a conservationist.

[robivi3]

I say the bastards 140.00 a bushel corn, of course that may be coming also.

[Bandit]

value-added tax (VAT) on gas

oh brother. what is this generation coming to...so they can take that tax & make war when they should be fixing the streets.

The global elite want to destroy the world's middle class.

That's just my opinion. Opinons are like elbows, everyone has two.

I have been saying this for almost 2 decades. BUt now that the middles class is being shoved out once & for all, it is going to be too late. we will be right back to peasant worships king caesar & the way of the roman empire...but hey! isn't that the way it is supposed to be any way?

I am constanly amazed at the brainwashing these companies do to the young people & college kids.

as for the oil-It is not that there is literal scarcity it is that they wont pump until you need to fill your tank with it, this is how the price varies so much from country to country. they are not going to give you the reserves to capitalize on, so from that angle, it becomes scarce & more expensive.

$12 a barrel? um...dont count on it.

that is my two elbows

[Bandit]

I agree BKpinoy, it may not be at tight conspiracy but is a conspiracy of some sort.

Everything is conspired & everyone has some sort of agenda (so to speak), & that does not mean they are all bad, only very hard to prove what is in the minds of people & the ulterior motives. The only reason it becomes a theory is because you cant prove it right but they also cant prove the theory wrong so it appears to not be wound tight.

It is sad, but kind of neat how that works.

[WhatMoney]

Peak oil is a scam manufactured by the oil companies to create artificial scarcity and drive up profits for transnational oil cartels. It was first originated in 1956 by Shell Oil's M. King Hubbert, who said that only one and a quarter trillion barrels of crude were left, a figure that was surpassed at the end of 2006. According to Hubbert's original calculations, the planet should already have produced its last drop 2 years ago.

Hubert's Peak Oil paper simply introduced a quantitative way of thinking about when the production rate of oil would peak. In fact most oil producing countries have already seen their peak oil production rate. Peak oil is not a scam, although a very few tin hat journalists/conspiracy writers would like you to believe it is. Oil is not a renewable resource, despite the abiogenic theories of the origin of oil. Hubert predicted the peak world oil rate around 2000, with a bell-shaped decline for the next 200 years - not bad for a 50 year old estimate.



It is still an interesting paper - containing wildly optimistic predictions about nuclear energy for example, all from a 1956 perspective:

http://www.hubbertpeak.com/hubbert/1956/1956.pdf

Hubert's original paper was based on known and estimated oil reserves and estimated future world consumption of oil, as of 1956. The estimates for world oil reserves have increased over the years, from Hubert's 1,250 Billion barrels in 1956 to present estimates from 1,500 to 2,400 Billion barrels. The oil consumption rate was reduced temporarily in the 1970's when the US was the worlds largest oil consumer, to today, where China, India, and other growing economies are increasing the demand at an alarming rate.

Peak Oil is a very complex topic, and impossible to predict until it has happened, as it has in many countries already. Politics and greed are involved in the published numbers, and future consumption can always change if the carbon-based economies ever get serious about alternative energy sources.

Wikipedia has good balanced coverage on peak oil, including all the theories of the doubters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil

.

[Pizza]

Gas prices are highest in all of the HIN (High Income Nations) of the world, and the top oil executives admitted last week that global demand has dropped too, yet prices are still continue to rise because of "XYZ" issues.

Gotta love those "XYZ" issues... I remember when a sinking US economy spelled a price collapse due to falling demand, NOW a sinking US economy instead translates into a price spike due to a falling dollar...

It's obvious that the traders are disconnected from reality and we're doing a repeat of the 70's until there's a change in world politics.