Sometimes it gets you in mid-pump
The gas price at a Shell Station leading into Christiansburg was $3.84 as we drove into the town Thursday afternoon.
When we drove out three hours later it was $3.89.
At a gas station in Roanoke last week, the price was $3.75 when I started pumping the gas and changed to $3.79 as soon as I finished.
It will most likely be $4 a gallon in our area by early next week and in some places, it is already headed for $5. The photo here was taken by the Associated Press in Redwood City, California on Thursday.
It’s interesting that when the price of a barrel of crude oil rises on the international market, the price at the pump increases immediately. But when the price of crude drops, it takes days or even weeks for the reduction to show up at the pump.
Our gas credit card bills are now our largest monthly cost, surpassing electricity, food or health insurance. Meanwhile, oil company profits continue to reach record highs while oil executives come up with the same tired excuses.
What is the old line about the rich getting richer while the poor gets poorer?
The Friday before last, I noticed that one of our local gas stations was selling Regular for $3.59, and that evening for $3.79. Almost exactly at the same time, refilling an emergency gas can I had, I remembered that I’d last filled it seven months before–when gas was exactly $1 per gallon cheaper.
Fortunately my mileage is almost non-existent. I may take the money I save to buy a bike, which would mean I might only need to drive one day a week. *Ponders*
A survey of 155 countries show that gas prices in the US are the 45th cheapest in the world. One reason we complain about gas prices is that our price is so low that a small increase results in a large percentage change (going from $2 to $4/gallon is a 100% increase).
Why are our prices so low? Because our government doesn’t add a lot of taxes to pay for entitlements as in other developed countries. Our government believes in keeping its citizens and commerce mobile for economic reasons.
What’s simply beyond belief is that in a country that tries to adhere to some loose structure of capitalism, a temporary successful company can get grilled by a Congressional charade pretending to have its citizen’s interests in mind. Actually, it makes perfect sense: Where there’s deep pockets, there’s money to be seized by the government.
If you follow the profit cycle of oil companies, then you will see a very volatile industry that takes large risks and makes large investments to provide a necessary product for society. The Bush administration and the oil industry has told Congress that we should be searching and drilling in new areas, but contrary to their recent faux concerns, they block exploration initiatives. Congress also speaks of alternative energy as if it was an answer when the International Energy Association shows that alternatives will never be able to replace even a third of carbon-based fuel sources owing to our incredibly growing demand for energy.
But we’re not discussing the big picture here. Power is not shifting to big oil companies, rather it is shifting to often undemocratic and hostile nations such as Venezuela, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. These countries will be able to sell their doctrines as well as purchase corporate power from countries like us who have no significant reserves. Meet the new regime of world rulers.
http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/104996/Why-Gas-in-the-U.S.-Is-So-Cheap
Or maybe it’s ostriches finally pulling their heads out of whatever they’ve been hiding them in. We had a real handle on this back in the 1970′s when I could buy several cars with respectable gas mileage. Then we let it go because OPEC was flooding the market with cheap oil. Now demand is up, the price is up, and the supply may well be dwindling. We’re back to what Pogo said.
Some of us have been conserving all along. That’s right, my 35 mpg Ford was subsidizing all those 15 mpg land yachts for 13 years before it broke its leg and I had to shoot it. For roughly the same money, I got another 4-cylinder, 5-speed, 5-passenger car that somehow never gets better than 33 mpg. We’ve been going backwards.