The U.S. average price for a gallon of regular gasoline topped $4 for the first time, a survey issued today by the travel group AAA showed.
AAA’s survey showed a national average price of $4.005 per gallon, up from $3.67 a month ago and $3.10 a year ago.
Average national gasoline prices had stabilized last week before Thursday and Friday’s spike of U.S. crude oil futures by $16 to a record above $139 a barrel. Friday’s one-day gain of $10.75 for crude oil was the biggest daily gain in history, and Thursday’s gain was the second biggest.
Kinda makes the weekend, doesn’t it?
Matter of fact, stopped down the road, this morning – just to get 4 gallons of gas for the lawn mower. Over $16.
Phew!
Mebbe I should get a goat. Have arrosto di capra for Thanksgiving.
Budget for $7 a gallon by Christmas.
And GM waits until now to sell the Hummer division? Close the barn door, all the horses are gone.
From Jalopnik:
The times, they are a changin’, and this week GM Chairman and Chieftain Rick Wagoner seems to have noticed. Wagoner announced a “strategic review of our Hummer brand,” yesterday. Translation: “Anyone want to buy Hummer? Anyone? C’mon…cheap! Cerberus, I’m lookin’ at you.”
Just for comparison, gas price in Germany:
1.50 Euro/Liter = 8.95 Dollar/Gallon
Big Oil is screwing with people. I drive 100 miles per day and go through several towns for my job. Last week gas was from $3.85 to $4.05 in my 100 mile circle except 1 town. The Wilco Hess station had gas as low as $3.60. Last week, every station I went by went up at least $.04 where the Hess went from $3.69 on Monday, $3.65 Wednesday, and $3.60 on Friday.
In 2006 before the election where we got a Democratic congress, Regular sold at a national average of $2.19. Barack has already said that if he gets elected gas will not go down.
We need to get rid of our government and get one that is ran by the people instead of a couple of dozen companies.
One more note, the is a local mechanic that in the ’70s made a modification to carburetors that would allow you to get close to 50 MPG. GM bought the patent for a couple of million and it has since disappeared.
#2 – edwinrogers,
That’d be painful for a while, but ultimately a really good thing. We’ve unfortunately already proven that we will not do anything useful towards getting ourselves off of oil preemptively and for the greater good. Now, we’re going to have to do it due to high prices.
I wish we could have started moving in the right direction back in 1973 … or 1979 … or after 9/11/2001 … or anytime in between.
However, we the idiots bought enormo-SUVs and their flat cousins, sports cars with V-12s instead.
So, now we unfortunately have to do it the hard way. And, the longer we wait the longer we keep trying to drill more instead of getting off oil, the harder it will be.
The only ones screwing people here in the US is the Congress. They won’t let the oil companies access the resources available in this country or build new refineries. Yet they have the gall to complain about the high cost of gas.
Gas has been over $4.00/gal. here in Hawaii for awhile now. Costco prices are $4.16 for reg. & $4.46 for premium (as of last Friday).
#6 – Go hug a tree, What we need to do is reopen exploration & drilling off “our” coastlines and in ANWAR.
My job requires that I drive an average of 150-300 miles a day these prices are pushing me to the borderline of bankruptcy, and I don’t drive a big SUV I drive a minivan that gets about 25mpg.
#7 – Jeff,
You’re right about congress screwing us. You’re wrong about how they’re doing it though. Drilling is not the answer. Getting off fossil fuels is the answer.
Even if we had a sizable portion of oil for which to drill, we could get more oil from simply not burning it unnecessarily than we ever could from drilling.
The most cost-effective way to get more energy is to stop using the energy we have unnecessarily. Europe’s fleet gets an average of 44 MPG. Do you think we can do better by drilling than by nearly doubling our fuel efficiency?
Even if so, do you think we would be better off burning that oil? Did you know that in the U.S. every year 70-130,000 people die from air pollution? Do you care about changing the global climate to one in which humanity may not be able to survive?
If you still want to drill for more oil, I think you have horrifically bad priorities.
Yeah all the news is always talking about the gas prices going up. Analysts always say “It’ll be $5 a gallon by the 4th of July, and $150 a barrel” and the oil companies are like “Now there’s an idea!”
Ah, my heart bleeds.
Here in Quebec it’s around 4.75/gal due to taxes.
I get over 45MPG w/o even trying, with a car that seats five adults and huge cargo space. Think 5x more capacity than a MURANO.
Built in blue tooth handsfree, 5 Multi-MP3 capable CD changer, fully equipped, passenger airbags, side curtains, anti-skid, and most fun key-less entry.
Around exactly half the cargo space of a Toyota Sienna, but nearly the same width, and 2 feet less depth.
Around 3/4 the price of a new Toyota Sienna.
Around 1/5 the fuel usage.
I even save 15% on my car insurance compared to a Honda Accord V6 that’s the same price.
(with more cargo capacity!)
Nice bonus driving in city congestion being allowed in car-pooling lanes even if alone.
Many cities now offer free parking at parking metres.
Guess the car !
// is being happy to own & drive such a car
// conducive to being called smug?
#9 – ApexMI,
Would you be better off with a minivan with a smaller engine and even better fuel economy?
Do you need the van or could you drive a smaller vehicle?
Really though, vans that get much better fuel efficiency than that have existed for years. Unfortunately, they have not been made available to the U.S. consumer.
I’m sorry you have a difficult situation. We need to make changes in lifestyle so that we can drive less and drive more fuel efficient vehicles.
The oil in ANWR is about a year’s supply. What will we do after that?
What will we do when we are no longer able to grow food in such quantities?
What will we do when there are no longer plentiful ocean fish for the billion people who rely on them for the bulk of their protein?
What will we do in 2050 when a billion people in the world are rendered homeless by climate change?
Do you think the world economy can sustain any attempt at a humanitarian effort for one eighth of the world’s population being homeless in 2050?
Today’s infants will be dealing with such catastrophic events when they are 42. That puts this very much in the near human time frame?
Won’t be my kids dealing with it. Will it be yours? Do you care about their future?
I know it sounds heartless when I say I am glad for high fuel prices. What you don’t know is that it sounds heartless when you say you don’t care about today’s children. And, you can rationalize it any way you want. You can ignore the best available science.
But, when you do, you are saying that you don’t care about today’s children or polar bears or any of thousands of other species on the brink.
Hug a tree? Sure I will.
Will you go hug an oil rig?
#12 – Mark Derail,
Prius seats 5, has good cargo space, and gets around 45. Did I get it?
If not, please share. I think I want one of those when I finally replace my 4 cyl 1992 camry.
Here in Italy has gone over 1.5 Euro *PER LITER*. Do your maths, and good luck!
I’m getting a methane-powered car ASAP!
[That would $5.96 per gallon. – ed.]
I may be giving the Reid/Pelosi regime too much credit but they know drilling for our own oil would increase supply, which would lower the price per gallon. It would also keep the money we now send to foreign countries in the US. A reasonable question is why aren’t we allowed to drill for our own oil?
Green lobbyist are as thick as thieves in Washington. The backbone of the current president is missing in action by not pursuing a reasonable energy policy. McCain and Obama have no plan other than raising taxes which will exponentially make things worse.
If one didn’t know better you’d think the objective is to purposely destroy the US economy…
#16 – Dr Dodd,
A reasonable question is why aren’t we allowed to drill for our own oil?
A better question is why we’re not allowed to increase the CAFE standards here in the U.S.A. Are we owned by the oil companies? Yes we are.
A better question is why we see our oil money going into the pockets of the oil rich nations that fund terrorists and then go out and by crappy cars and trucks that get shit gas mileage.
A better question is why we see evidence of climate change all around us and fail to care for our children by demanding renewable energy sources and efficient energy use.
Oh well. It won’t be my kids dealing with our stupidity. I’ve given them the greatest gift one can give their children in these critical times, the gift of non-existence.
Dr Dodd
Local oil is heavily subsidized with your taxes.
That’s the reason, quite simple.
The Fed’s cut the subsidy because the oil companies are making huge profit.
Their response? Keep the price high, keep the profits.
If you want to blame greeners it’s that they want the Fed’s subsidies to finance alternate energy, like solar, wind, etc.
IOW, pouring a billion into local oil, results in large wasteful SUV’s (I like small 4×4’s) and bad driving habits, badly maintained cars, and smog in the cities.
So, Dr Dodd, you’d rather drive cheap subsidized gas?
Our good friends in Saudi Arabia
A very attack on our civilization
How much more of this abuse will we take ?
QUOTE:
U.S. crude oil futures by $16 to a record above $139 a barrel.
I hope you all know what this is.
If you dont know what a Future is, Look it up.
http://www.investopedia.com/university/futures/
A futures contract is a type of derivative instrument, or financial contract, in which two parties agree to transact a set of financial instruments or physical commodities for future delivery at a particular price. If you buy a futures contract, you are basically agreeing to buy something that a seller has not yet produced for a set price.
FUTURES work well for the gas corps.
BECAUSE, even if OPEC drops prices, they can STILL INFLATE the prices…And they ARE.
#17 MS
The oil companies are certainly not boy scouts so it is not unreasonable to lay partial fault at their doorstep. It also can’t be overlooked that the excessive rate of state and federal taxes per gallon play a major roll in the price as well.
I’m not sure that the climate change part of the equation is helpful since this is not settled science.
#18 Mark Derail
“So, Dr Dodd, you’d rather drive cheap subsidized gas?”
I’m like most people and that is to be able to buy gas at a reasonable price.
#21 – Dr Dodd,
I’m not sure that the climate change part of the equation is helpful since this is not settled science.
You make a lot of excellent points. This is not one of them. It’s true that the science may turn out wrong. However, there really is a tremendous wealth of data suggesting otherwise and very little suggesting that the state of climate science is not settled.
So, we can bet humanity’s survival on an incredibly long shot, or we can go by the best available science, which says that we must act now, if there even is still enough time to do so.
You might call it a form of Pascal’s wager, if the odds were 50-50. But, they’re not.
When scientists from Saudi Arabia, China, Australia, and The United States all agree to state that with 90% confidence, climate change is both real and human caused, we should pay attention.
Why?
Well, these four countries in particular are the largest oil exporter, coal burner, coal exporter, and oil burner, respectively. All of these nations have a vested interest in disproving that climate change is real or in disproving that it is human caused.
I believe the scientists they picked are reputable.
However, I also believe they were picked for their pre-existing opinions on climate change. Yet, these people, presumably chosen for their skepticism, could only state a 10% uncertainty.
So, when the IPCC makes a statement such as 90% confidence that climate change is real and human caused, we must pay attention because the real situation is likely far worse than they state.
On a prior thread, I was challenged by JimR on this point and did a little searching, OK, actually a lot of searching, and came up with an interesting article that happened to back up my statement quite a bit. Note that 3 out of 4 of my chosen list above just happen to be the biggest objectors to strong wording about climate change.
http://tinyurl.com/65oby9
What a coincidence!
#15 – Are you going to get a live cow hood ornament too?
Warning, this picture may be too provocative for Mister Mustard. http://tinyurl.com/6ncdkq
Here’s a link to that earlier thread. It had some good discussion on it.
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=17953
#23 – Mr. Ketchup,
That was udderly ridiculous.
>>It also can’t be overlooked that the
>>excessive rate of .. federal taxes per gallon
Federal gas tax is currently $0.184 per gallon.
On a $4 gallon of gas, that’s less than 5%. You consider this “excessive”? I’m looking forward to a $5/gal “sin tax” on gas, with the proceeds being used to develop alternatives to Humpers and Naggravators.
#23 – Mr. K
Now that’s downright silly. Everyone knows that I condimentize pork-based products.
http://tinyurl.com/68yhaq
You are the one who spreads himself, smoothly and sensually, over the carrion of the udder-bearing cow.
http://tinyurl.com/63db6t
As I said, I’m sticking with the relish and onions.
If you guys haven’t done so already, listen to the end of this weeks “No Agenda” John and Adam talk about something called the Enron Loophole and they speculate about the current oil issue, I found it quite interesting and I think it’s worth the time to listen to…
Everyone is at fault. The selfish consumers who bought the gas guzzlers, the selfish car manufacturers who made the gas guzzlers for the selfish consumers, and the selfish oil companies who raped the earth for more oil to meet the increased demand the selfish car manufacturers created by supplying gas guzzlers for selfish consumers. Meanwhile the generally moronic public repeatedly votes in stick figureheads who won’t change their affluent, wasteful and piggish lifestyle.
By the way, $4 per gallon is cheap. I wish i could buy gas that cheaply.
Just for reference.
Today, gas is $4.49 a gallon for regular at most gas stations in Mojave, CA. Last weekend it was around $4.35 a gallon. The weekend before, $4.10 a gallon.