Gas prices may hit $5/gal by Memorial Day

It's not often an industry will tell you they are charging the highest price possible AND playing with that price within nearby localities. And we, as a whole, accept that pricing tactic... when done by any other industry, it would be considered criminal. Interesting that, even when there is gas being delivered by more than one wholesaler in an area, all the retail prices are still (artificially) the same.

That sad thing is that we are all tied to this price. It's easy enough to reduce your usage, but that doesn't stop trucks from rolling with goods, school buses taking kids to school, and folks that drive to work (in situations where walking or biking isn't a viable alternative).

So, even when you reduce your usage, everything you buy, every service you need will be more expensive because an industry is allowed "to price what the market will bear" with impunity. Yes, everything costs more these days... but no other product out there could continue to raise prices like fuel and not have the public turn away. We simply can't.

Yes, there is more world-wide demand for oil. BUT, more cars in China is NOT the reason that gas stations in one neighborhood collectively charge more than in another nearby. Price collusion.

I recently said, "Self fulfilling prophecy." It drives the speculators, which drives the price. People scream and bitch, it gets to a point where Congress "will look into it," prices will come down 20% off their 50% inflated price, and everyone will say, "Oh, good, gas prices are down." The oil companies will continue with record profits, and our standard of living will continue to decrease.

I can't convince my wife that we should go back to sailing. Haven't figured a way to run my truck on solar. Don't know any way for the grocery stores to get product to the stores via ox cart. So, they've got us.

I don't have an answer, short of government fuel monopoly, as in Mexico. And, I'm not in favor of that.

Mad Max scenarios don't seem so ridiculous these days. :disgust
 
Since we are getting ready for a trip to Florida this normal that fuel prices are going thru the roof. I'm thinking most of this spike is being caused by futures traders using the spin that Iran is going to shut down the straights of Whoremuz(sic). I thought that the private funded pipeline from Canada to Texas was a step in the right direction but enviromental concerns in one of the Dakota's was an issue. It's funny that we bury nuclear waste and that is not an eviromental problem. No political slant here. I think it might be time to start writing the elected officials and making some noise about objecting to this scam. I wrote one of mine last week and ask him a few questions about maybe restricting oil and gas from futures trading or tax the transactions so heavily they can't make any money. Seems that this continent ought to be able supply it's own needs. It's an election year, big oil has a lot of money to throw around. Get mad about or at least fake it to your elected officials. Public outcry derailed Light source at least for the time being. The meek might not inherit the world.
D.D.
 
I filled up my cc-23 yesterday cash price $4.45 per gallon visa card price $4.65 I bought 34gallons ouch
I wanted to fill up before it went up further

Hopefully this will last untill the summer ?
 
I just clipped the following from a UK newspaper site.

British motorists are shouldering the heaviest tax burden in the EU at the pumps, official figures reveal.
Sixty per cent of the price of unleaded petrol and 58 per cent of the cost of diesel is made up of duties and VAT in Britain, the highest percentages in the European Union.
Campaigners meet Treasury minister Chloe Smith today to demand action for millions of drivers who are already facing a regular £100 fill up for an average family-size car.
The figures show that the soaring tax take has made overall diesel pump prices in Britain the highest in the EU, while the price of unleaded petrol is the eighth highest.
The mid-January price for diesel in the UK was 141.3p a litre. But without tax and duties, it would be only 59.8p. Unleaded petrol cost 132.9p, although without tax and duties it would be a much more manageable 52.8p.
Even since the analysis was completed, pump prices have continued to soar.
At the weekend one garage on the M6 was spotted selling diesel for 150p a litre.
The disclosure comes just days after Chancellor George Osborne refused to slash fuel duty in next month’s Budget, saying he had already done enough to help drivers and that ‘the British government has run out of money’.
The only country which comes anywhere near our levels for diesel motorists is Italy, where 53 per cent of the cost is accounted for by taxes and duties.

France and Germany are on 47 per cent and 48 per cent respectively, while the lowest tax take is in Luxembourg: 38 per cent.
In total UK drivers pay a third more for diesel than their counterparts in Luxembourg, according to the figures, published in the European Commission’s Oil Bulletin and available in the House of Commons Library.
There is a similar story with unleaded petrol. Some 60 per cent of the pump price in Britain is down to tax and duties – just ahead of Greece, Italy, Netherlands and Sweden on 59 per cent.
The lowest tax takes are in Cyprus, where just 43 per cent comes from tax and duties. British drivers spend almost 30 per cent more to fill up than those in Cyprus.


I can remember when Diesel was much cheaper than Gas in EU and it spawned a whole bunch of very efficient small diesel engines. Then, guess what, diesel got more expensive than gas. Funny how that happened.
The place has never been the same since we landed on the moon :shock:

M
 
Grumpy said:
I just clipped the following from a UK newspaper site.

British motorists are shouldering the heaviest tax burden in the EU at the pumps, official figures reveal.
Sixty per cent of the price of unleaded petrol and 58 per cent of the cost of diesel is made up of duties and VAT in Britain, the highest percentages in the European Union.
Campaigners meet Treasury minister Chloe Smith today to demand action for millions of drivers who are already facing a regular £100 fill up for an average family-size car.
The figures show that the soaring tax take has made overall diesel pump prices in Britain the highest in the EU, while the price of unleaded petrol is the eighth highest.
The mid-January price for diesel in the UK was 141.3p a litre. But without tax and duties, it would be only 59.8p. Unleaded petrol cost 132.9p, although without tax and duties it would be a much more manageable 52.8p.
Even since the analysis was completed, pump prices have continued to soar.
At the weekend one garage on the M6 was spotted selling diesel for 150p a litre.
The disclosure comes just days after Chancellor George Osborne refused to slash fuel duty in next month’s Budget, saying he had already done enough to help drivers and that ‘the British government has run out of money’.
The only country which comes anywhere near our levels for diesel motorists is Italy, where 53 per cent of the cost is accounted for by taxes and duties.

France and Germany are on 47 per cent and 48 per cent respectively, while the lowest tax take is in Luxembourg: 38 per cent.
In total UK drivers pay a third more for diesel than their counterparts in Luxembourg, according to the figures, published in the European Commission’s Oil Bulletin and available in the House of Commons Library.
There is a similar story with unleaded petrol. Some 60 per cent of the pump price in Britain is down to tax and duties – just ahead of Greece, Italy, Netherlands and Sweden on 59 per cent.
The lowest tax takes are in Cyprus, where just 43 per cent comes from tax and duties. British drivers spend almost 30 per cent more to fill up than those in Cyprus.


I can remember when Diesel was much cheaper than Gas in EU and it spawned a whole bunch of very efficient small diesel engines. Then, guess what, diesel got more expensive than gas. Funny how that happened.
The place has never been the same since we landed on the moon :shock:




CNN to shortly announce oil & natural gas prices to plunge as the largest deposits in history have been discovered on the Moon. Sources say these deposits could last well into the year 3000
Click to expand...
 
localboy":2hpifkth said:
Sixty per cent of the price of unleaded petrol and 58 per cent of the cost of diesel is made up of duties...
Click to expand...
:shock:

Again, someone explain to me logically, why we should emulate Europe...
Click to expand...
Again someone explain to me why one example (or even many) means that there is nothing we can learn from others? :lol:

Also to be clear, I never said we should emulate Europe - I simply pointed out that much of the price difference in fuels was due to tax differences and that the reason for that in some economies is an intentional attempt to use governmental policies to encourage efficient use of fuel. In Europe, the average car gets significantly better fuel economy than in the U.S. (they also have much better public transportation on average - even in the rural areas of many countries). Whether taxes is the best way to achieve such things is arguable (I said that previously too). But to dismiss an entire continent and to assume there's nothing worth learning from them is strange to me.

I'm sure there are some in Europe looking at specific aspects of the U.S. who don't want to emulate the U.S. in total either. My point is that there are good and bad ideas in many different parts of the world and governments and we'd be wise to learn enough about the world so that we could judiciously choose the best aspects of how to run things here. I think too many people assume that because we have many things right in the U.S. that there is nothing to change or nothing we can learn from other countries.
 
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