Gas prices in U.S. to hit $4.00 by April!

[jaydizzo]

shit gas just went down here i paid 3.17 for 93 (all i put in my car)

Iv'e gotten over my bitching about this what im really worried about is why the f$%k is milk is so freaking expensive

 

[Spiff]

Today cokeacola is ~ $9/gallon.

You buy expensive coke. I can usually find a 12 pack, which contains more than a gallon, for about $3.

 

[dj415]

why the f$%k is milk is so freaking expensive

GWB and the whole cabal!

 

[cityboy-stl]

What are your thoughts?

I think this is exactly what was planned by the secret Dick Cheney energy meetings with the oil companies just after Bush took office. Dick and company planned to manipulate the markets so that gas would be $5.00 a gallon in the U.S. by the time Bush left office and that he and Halliburton and the oil companies would be mega-zillionaires and the rest of us economic slaves to the fascist corporate regime.

 

[unclaimedblessing]

Just one more reason Dubya never asks "How am I doing?".
He has entire departments full of economic, diplommacy and energy experts and no one can come up with an idea?
But then again, he is a petroleum profiteer.

 

[dj415]

@cityboy-stl and unclaimedblessing...

On the nose. We are fucked!

I want out!

 

[star-warrior]

It's still 100.9 pence per litre in the UK, or at least, the petrol station I use most often.

A = 100.9p = US$ 2.01498 per litre

(£1 = US$1.99701)

B = 3.785 litres per US gallon

A x B = US$ 7.6266993 per US gallon cost equivalent in the UK.

You have cheap petrol in the US

 

[dj415]

You have cheap petrol in the US

Yep, and we always have compared to the rest of the world. (Well I mean Europe, taxes and all. Have never known the price of petrol in the middle east.)

Point is GWB and his cabal took it from ~$1.80/gallon to ~$3.50/gallon. Sux here and everywhere else the price went up by as much.

 

[seven_sins]

When Clinton was prez, I remember paying 75.9 for gas. If the price had gone up during his administration, the fundies would have blamed it all on him. Now that Bush is prez, I haven't heard any of them blame him for a thing.

 

[cityboy-stl]

You have cheap petrol in the US

We do not have cheap petrol in the U.S. You have high taxes.

A quick wikipedia search tells me UK taxes for gas are a whopping 188%.

If we paid your tax rate (if I did the math right) we would be paying over $8.00 a gallon.

I guess that doesn't change the fact that it's too damned expensive whatever the reason.

Nevertheless, maybe you should be lobbying your government for tax relief on gasoline.

 

[Huskerboy]

Wow! 188% tax on gasoline?!?! That's absurd! That kind of thing would NEVER fly here in the States... no question about it!

Guess it doesn't matter where we're at, the price of fuel/energy is a huge expense and isn't going to get any better - at least for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, alternative fuel sources aren't moving into the picture as fast as they should be.

To address the cost of heating our home, we've started a sinking fund to put in a geo-thermal heating/cooling system in the next few years. It won't help with the price of gas/diesel, but it should allow us to at least budget a little more for the price increase...

 

[trawler69]

Well something has got to persuade U.S. citizens to cut back on the use of finite resources and sadly the only way to do that is by hitting them in the pocket, the same is true the world over. In the uk the result has been an upsurge in the sales of economical cars, 40+ mpg is now the norm.

It would be nice to think revenue raised from taxes would be spent on developing less polluting or renewable technologies but sadly again that will not be the case.

 

[Ramindra]

(groan) Oh, Ramindra... don't talk like that!!!!

How has everyone in Oz dealt with the high prices?

Food and energy costs have been kept artificially low in this country for a long time - now it's starting to catch up with us and people are really going to feel it.

I cope with it by using my car less and my bike more. I actually walk to the shops about a mile away. Living in the tropics, we do not have to worry about heating. I have turned the aircon up to 25C but have fans in every room which get used.

People complain about the cost of petrol but have not seriously limited vehicle use. Probably 70% of vehicles have one person in them. Despite soaring fuel costs, SUV sales increased 4% last month whilst sedan sales slumped. Recently I was near a school at 3.15 and the mums had appeared to pick up the brats. There were 14 SUVs then a Toyota Corolla then 9 SUVs at the lights!

Frankly, I do not know how people are really coping. Interest rates are on the up. Fuel is going up. Inflation is on the up. Food prices are heading up due to the prolonged drought. The Oz dollar is falling making imported goods more expensive, particularly fuel.

And yet, Australians are spending like their is no tomorrow. Like increases for cigarettes and liquor, I think Ozzies just take increased fuel costs as a fact of life and don't worry too much about it.

Unfortunately, the nation is going to wake up one morning in the not too distant future, and collectively say, "Oh shit!"

 

[rareboy]

The US has had cheap gas for far too long.

For the rest of the world the high price of gas, including taxes has curbed consumption and supports the kind of public transportation systems that north america just can't get their heads around.

You'll all survive. You just won't have as much extra money to buy useless shit made of plastic at Walmart.

 

[star-warrior]

We do not have cheap petrol in the U.S. You have high taxes.

A quick wikipedia search tells me UK taxes for gas are a whopping 188%.

If we paid your tax rate (if I did the math right) we would be paying over $8.00 a gallon.

I guess that doesn't change the fact that it's too damned expensive whatever the reason.

Nevertheless, maybe you should be lobbying your government for tax relief on gasoline.

From the 22nd May 2007, Wired Magazine

http://www.wired.com/cars/energy/magazine/15-06/st_atlas

That was back when it was cheaper... I still say despite what you seem to think is expensive is really not.

For the UK, much of the cost does go into a flat rate tax called the Fuel Duty, and there's also another tax called VAT of 17.5% put on top too. The following is for petrol when it was worth an average of £1 just over a month ago (source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7082847.stm )

Compare this to the type of taxes Americans pay for petroleum fuel cost
Source: http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/1054.html (Sept. 2005)

http://www.thepriceoffuel.com/whataffectsfuelpricing/

In the spring of 2007, gasoline inventories in the United States declined approximately 15 percent. According to the American Petroleum Institute a combination of events contributed to lower supply levels, including: refinery outages, the annual switchover to "summer blend" gasoline and a labor strike. At the same time, demand for gasoline continued to rise and the U.S. average retail price for regular unleaded gasoline reached a new record at $3.10 a gallon.
Despite the increase, people in the United States still pay significantly less for gasoline than people in many other countries.

This chart depicts the elements of production, transportation, refining and distribution required to transform crude oil into finished petroleum products like gasoline.
In the United States, the average tax on gasoline is 45.8 cents per gallon. The tax is usually a combination of federal, state and local fees taxes, underground storage tank fees and other environmental fees. Many European countries attach much higher fees as an incentive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and raise revenue, increasing the overall price of gasoline.

Although the number were for different years, rather than now, we can see that the general level of tax on petrol in the US is low compared to many countries.

The cost per gallon at the pump is the comparator, since as end users this is what comes out of our pockets. The tax issue is a diversion. At four dollars to the gallon, you have it cheap. Why don't you come to the UK and see how much four dollars or two pounds buys you. (hint: two litres or just over half a gallon of petrol).

 

[metta]

Personally, I think that the increase in costs is a good thing. It will force us to be more energy efficient. It will put more pressure on companies to do so as well. It will force us to be less energy wasteful. And if people don't, they will just have to make the sacrifices in their daily lives.

I do think that we are coming to the end of cheap energy. We will still have gas but it will become more and more costly to get and refine.

Please look up oil peak.

I try my best to be energy efficient. For example, I work from home and I drive a hybrid. Some people will eventually want to consdier changing their lifestyle as well as where they choose to live. People should not live far away from where they work unless they have the mass transit system available that can justify it.

Part of this is a quality of life issue as well. Do you really want to spend all that time on the road when you could be using that time to do other things you might enjoy doing?

 

[cowmangav]

shit gas just went down here i paid 3.17 for 93 (all i put in my car)

Iv'e gotten over my bitching about this what im really worried about is why the f$%k is milk is so freaking expensive

The dairy farm sector has had it rough these last few years.Is it really acceptable for entrepreneurs with a lot of capital at stake to earn less than the minimum wage for their manual work done?
That was the position in the UK until the recent upturn in milk prices , but cost inflation threatens to leave us not much better off.

 

[radioian]

There are plenty of 2, 2.2 litre petrol engined cars for sale in the states which will do 35mpg or so on the open road-and quite big and roomy as well--be honest do you REALLY need a bigger engine than that anywhere in the states, if you are not towing or logging?

Here in the Uk, our petrol is now £1.04 a LITRE!!!!!!!! horrendous.....

but Government make a lot of money out of high petrol prices--its nort the high price of fuel, its the taxation........

Cars burn cleaner now, with unleaded fuel(incidentally, that doesnt mean NO lead, just no extra added) and cat. converters, and a low co, usually 1--1 1/2%, and less than 400p.p.million on the exhaust smoke. Its ridiculous driving a 4/5 seater with a 5 litre engine. There are speed limits everywhere, and my 2 litre automatic flies up any type of steep hill loaded up with 5 adults and luggage--what more do you need?

 

[USEDCAR]

First rule of thumb: Stop shopping at Wal-Mart.

Im curious why?

They are way cheaper then Targay and K-start and they sell the same crap

 

[metta]

Im curious why?

They are way cheaper then Targay and K-start and they sell the same crap

I hope that you are not serious! Do you really only judge things by the price tag? There are other things to consider than price, such as the quality of the materials, health issues, treatment of the labor, protection of the environment, etc. These things are way more important to me than price. Personally, I'm willing to pay way more to protect these things. The actual price comes after all of those other things for me.

walmart mentality....that is just a whole different ugly world to the one that I choose to live in.