Price of Gasoline -- OT

[Eric47Dodge]

This might be a little off topic, but did anyone besides me notice that the price of gas went up 5 to 7 cents on the day after the election (at least here in the soggy pacific northwest). I'm starting to believe in those conspiricy theories.....

[Dennis Hemingway]

I think they are getting ready for the Holidays, the price allways seems to go up just before a Holiday.

Dennis:(

[Brad Lustig]

Prices stayed pretty steady around here at about $2.10. I guess because we're a red state

[IanT_Qld]

confused: In Australia the price has come down approxiamtely 7c/litre in Kalgoorlie over the last month. - Most unusual. ($AUD133/litre for diesel, don't pay attn to petrol)

[Guest Paul G (Dr Vinyl)]

I heard tha OPEC is cutting production to drive up the prices.

[Guest Dave Claussen]

From what it was about a month ago, it's up about 20 cents a gallon, but we saw it up to $3.35 a gallon and even a little higher at certain times earlier in the year. I live just outside of Chicago IL. and in the city itself they usually see a dime or two higher price than we do in the burbs. Now we think $2.25 a gallon is a good price after paying over $3 for a while. Now there's a conspiracy for you. Price it way up for a while and then bring it back down and they'll think that it's a bargain. My uncle says it should be $1. 35 forever. He's living in a dream world. Don't forget that there's a lot of taxes rolled into those prices too. But when the cost of fuel goes up, the goverment collects more taxes. No wonder they don't want to step in and play hardball with the oil companies. Wouldn't want to bite the hand that feeds you!

[greg g]

Here is a link to an interactive gas price map;

http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_gastemperaturemap.aspx

[Johnny S]

Gas prices are quite variable here in Colorado. Denver was about 2.06 to 2.09 the day before yesterday. Up here in Fort Collins we can't seem to get below 2.21. At least we aren't seeing the 3.00 plus stuff that we did earlier this summer.

[TodFitch]

I live in an area that seems to consistently have the highest gas prices in the nation. We were above, and stayed above, $3/gal for a long time before I heard of $3 prices elsewhere. At present we are somewhere south of $3, maybe in the mid to low $2 range -- I don't pay a lot of attention as my "everyday car" gets 44 MPG in actual use (not EPA estimates) and I walk to work most days.

It is a becoming a pretty well accepted opinion among geologists that we are at or near "peak oil". Basically that says that about half the oil that was in the earth when we started using it over 100 years ago is gone. Since the easy stuff is always the first extracted, the remaining half will will be harder to get out. Future oil will be in more inaccessible regions that cost more to tap and bring to market: much deep in the sea, in arctic regions, in politically unstable regions, etc.

In addition other parts of the world, principally India and China, are rapidly catching up to us in per capita use. So demand is up and will generally stay up.

The end result is we are entering a era where demand meets or exceeds supply. Free market economics pretty much says that price will be easily perturbed by small changes in demand or supply. Plant or pipeline accidents, bad weather on shipping routes, political instability, etc. will all drive short term price spikes.

These factors that affect oil economics are not going to go away. There may be local cartels that assure that all gasoline stations in your region change there prices in lock step. But an awful lot of that can be explained by all those retailers getting notified at the same time about the new prices they will be charged by the distributors.

By the way, it was stated in an earlier reply that "when the cost of fuel goes up, the government collects more taxes." I am pretty sure that in my state the taxes are on a per gallon basis. I think the federal taxes are on a per gallon basis too. So if the price of gas goes up and drives demand down then the government actually will collect less. Until, that is, an act of the legislature specifically increases the tax. . .

[Guest Dave Claussen]

I stand corrected! But sales tax would increase with the price per gallon, wouldn it not? That would be a small percentage compared to the other taxes, so I have to agree they're not getting that much more as the price goes up. But let's not forget the fact that Mr. Bush's family owns interests in oil themselves so it comes as no surprise that he would turn somewhat of a blind eye to the gouging of the American people at the pump. Maybe I seem a little critical of the big oil companies, but when they record profits every quarter and their execs enjoy multi-million dollar pensions at the expense of people who are forced to make a choice between gas and their other living expenses, we have to say "enough's enough already" Many people are forced to use their cars to travel back and forth to work because they don't have access to the convenience of public transportation. Trust me, if I could ride the bus or the train to work, I would, but it's not even an option where I live.

I just worry that I'm doing this project vehicle and when I get it done I won't be able to afford to drive it. I don't think I'm alone in that boat.

OK, I've ranted enough, time to get down off my soapbox. Sorry for the 90 degree tangent, but sometimes you gotta vent the pressure or you'll blow a gasket.

[Ed Griffin]

Yes, it did jump up here dramatically afterwards. Whats funny is how it was dropping down just before elections. There's an old saying that fits in this issue very well. It aint pretty and I changed it some to be able to post but it's so true.

"dont pee on my back and tell me it's raining"

[Roadkingcoupe]

Last year at this time the best price I found for gas was $1.99 in Indiana.

Same time this year I paid $2.05 in PA

I drive a lot

Not too bad for a year later