posted
I just spoke to my parental unit. She works for Shell and Exxon Mobil and she gave me some scary news about gas prices.
I know that back home in Washington, gas prices are hovering in the 1.95 for regular range and they are losing 3 cents on every gallon that is bought with cash and 7-8 cents on every gallon sold on credit.
The fear is that gas prices will rise to nearly 40 dollars a barrell and this will put regular prices in the 2.75-3.00 a gallon range.
She couldn't go into too much detail on the route causes (im sure there are many), but the outlook doesn't look good. That Silverado SS is getting pricey to fill up. 60.00 or more per tank. YIKESS.
Im very worried that we may be on the verge of something disasterous revolving around gasoline.
Just when we thought we might enjoy another Horsepower War.........
2003 Silverado SS, Arrival Blue, Bone Stock. Delivery 7-10-03 Member of the Pacific Northwest Camaro Club.
I am a temporary resident of the Amazing state of Michigan. My true home is in Eastern Washington State. Posts: 75 | From: Midland, Michigan | Registered: May 2003
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Try filling up a boat tank at Marine gas prices! Down here. Marine gas is at least 50 cents more per gallon than you find at the local gas station! Then of course, there is the wonderful (not) gas "mileage" you get with a boat which is soooooo much worse than the worse car or truck out there.
-------------------- Dave S Black 2000 Camaro SS Posts: 502 | From: Fort Mill, South Carolina....Charlotte | Registered: Aug 2003
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I think I read that most of the oil companies decided to upgrade some of their refineries all at the same time, which would mean less gas can be produced. I know there are other factors involved, but it basically comes down to greed, the rich want to get richer. Posts: 641 | From: northern Delaware | Registered: Jul 2002
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It is getting out of hand. One thing that really bothers me here in Michigan is that $.45 cents a gallon is TAX. This tax is used to "repair and maintain" our roads. The road work here is so poor and shoddy one almost wonders if the government lets is slide in order to keep those jobs aorund. There is always road work going on in Michigan and our roads are not very good.
Posts: 1296 | From: Saginaw, MI | Registered: May 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Sizzle: It is getting out of hand. One thing that really bothers me here in Michigan is that $.45 cents a gallon is TAX. This tax is used to "repair and maintain" our roads. The road work here is so poor and shoddy one almost wonders if the government lets is slide in order to keep those jobs aorund. There is always road work going on in Michigan and our roads are not very good.
Same here in NC and at one time we had the best roads of any state in the country but that was along time ago and the state has spent the road tax money on other things other than road work for along time and now we have the bad roads. The tax is high enough at the pumps and would not mind if it was used for what it was ment for. There are areas of the roads I come home from town that has not been repaved in the over 17 years I have lived in this area they just keep patching them.
-------------------- Willard (Mike) Scott Worldwide Camaro Club North Carolina state Rep. 2001 SS convertible with all SLP opts. Sunset Orange Neutral top Neutral leather http://community.webshots.com/user/wmss Posts: 737 | From: Siler City N.C. | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Sizzle: It is getting out of hand. One thing that really bothers me here in Michigan is that $.45 cents a gallon is TAX. This tax is used to "repair and maintain" our roads. The road work here is so poor and shoddy one almost wonders if the government lets is slide in order to keep those jobs aorund. There is always road work going on in Michigan and our roads are not very good.
What gets me is they repair roads that dont have anything wrong with them!
Posts: 18 | From: Coloma Mi | Registered: Aug 2003
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FireChicken
11 Secret Herbs & Spices
Member # 2067
posted
Fortunately, Texas has excellent roads (we pay a fortune in property and state sales taxes, but no state income tax).
For the most part, our tax dollars are relatively well spent, with fewer complaints than most people seem to have.
Of course, anything that is run by a bureacracy is going to have a consiberal amount of BS that goes on, thats a given.
But, as far as the gas prices go, there are a few points I would like to make.
1. The law of supply and demand can be optimized to maximize profit. For you non-eco, tech, or math people, what this means is that if you compare high prices and profit to low prices and profit, sometimes, the highest profit is at neither end, but somewhere in the middle. For example, if the price of gasoline is $8 a gallon, no one will buy. People will do other things, and so demand will drop. As a result, oil companies sell almost no gasoline, and begin to go broke. However, that will create an increased supply (relative to number of people buying it), so the price will drop as companies to compete to sell what they have. This low price, high supply is the the other end of the spectrum. If its cheap, they make no money in profit either. So in reality, to make money, they need a balance between supply and demand. That is why the price changes so easily, is that the middle-band-range is fluctuating up and down plus or minus $0.50 a gallon from the average.
2. Our second problem is that we really need to start moving toward burning something other than oil. Oil is far to valuable (its a primary base of about 6 other industries, including plastics formation), and its also getting too expensive to drill for. That means that in time, it will become so expensive, that cost will outrun the demand, and the price will experience massive fluctuations (plus or minus $1-$5), and will ruin the market because its too unpredictable.
3. Our third problem is that most of the people who talk about alternative fuels are morons. Plain and simple. They talk about using gaseous hydrogen as a fuel for fuel cells, and dont understand the simple issues with using hydrogen:
A. Its far less efficient than gasoline burning engines, and will cost more both in resources and money than gasoline ever will. B. It will destroy the world's water supply, which is NOT a renewable resource, and is the most valuable resource for life on Earth. C. Hydrogen, being the smallest molecule on the periodic table, will ALWAYS leak, no matter what. No system has ever been devised that can truly store gaseous hydrogen for any length of time, so the amount of hydrogen that will escape through tanks, pipelines, etc, will be much much much more (estimates include as much as a factor of 10 times the escape rate of natural gas), which in part contributes to points A and B. D. Hydrogen is far more dangerous than liquid gasoline or natural gas or diesel fuel, and poses a number of safety problems for which there are no solutions available with our current technology.
So, our solutions are...
Electric cars, hybrids, alcohol-based fuels, biking, and walking. Fortunately, being in texas, gas prices are lower than most other places in the country. I think i still pay less than $1.60 per gallon for regular gas, depending on what station you go to.
Posts: 686 | From: Texas: Hullabaloo, Caneck! Caneck! | Registered: Aug 2003
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I thought it was 40.00 a barrell. Gas rose 6 cents here tuesday so now it's 1.80 for reg. and 1.95 foe super. Looks like I won't be driving the cars for awhile.
I wish there was a way that we could boycott gas.
Posts: 339 | From: Wallops Island, VA | Registered: Sep 2002
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... Price for Regular unleaded: Friday 5/7 - $1.89 Sunday 5/9 - $2.05 Sure has been going up fast around here (Upstate, NY) It always "amazes" me how the price goes up (even when the station still hasn't got a new delivery).
Posts: 1046 | From: Pine Bush, NY USA | Registered: Aug 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Opie: Ahh man I filled up the suburban yesterday. 42 gallon tank and it was low, but the bill was high.
Just filled my Suburban on Saturday and it had 3/8 of a tank already. Cost me $55 to top it off. These rising gas prices will effect every single thing we buy. I live in the automobile capital of the world and it will sure put a hurting on the truck and SUV market. I was going to eventually buy a newer Suburban, but with prices like this, I could not afford the big payment and fuel at the same time. Looks like I'll be driving that old 1990 Suburban for a while longer.I really think this whole increase of the gas prices is just a big scam. It makes sense since the last Fortune 500 company list was released, top of the list was Wal Mart then Exxon-Mobil and third was GM.
quote:Originally posted by Opie: Ahh man I filled up the suburban yesterday. 42 gallon tank and it was low, but the bill was high.
Just filled my Suburban on Saturday and it had 3/8 of a tank already. Cost me $55 to top it off. These rising gas prices will effect every single thning we buy. I live in the automobile capital of the world and it will sure put a hurting on the truck and SUV market. I was going to eventually buy a newer Suburban, but with prices like this, I could not afford the big payment and fuel at the same time. Looks like I'll be driving that old 1990 Suburban for a while longer.I really think this whole increase of the gas prices is just a big scam. It makes sense since the last Fortune 500 company list was released, top of the list was Wal Mart then Exxon-Mobil and third was GM.
Filled mine from just under a 1/4 tank, $57 @ $1.87 a gallon.
-------------------- 1998 Bright Rally Red SS M6 Hardtop SLP build# 1045 Mostly Stock Thanks SLP Posts: 42 | From: Minnesota | Registered: Aug 2003
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I filled up the hawk with 93 octane, early saturday morning at $2.159 per gallon. Sunday afternoon, the same gas station, had the same gas at $2.209 .. how can gas prices increase, if the stock market is already closed ?
I am lucky, my commute is 1.0 mile. If it gets near $3.00 /gallon in late summer, I will just walk to work
-------------------- Florida SS buff Now in Newport/Middletown Rhode Island 2002 Bright-Red Firehawk # 35. M-6, Loaded to the hilt 315 hp/335tq as of March 14, 2004 Home of 2002 Firehawk #35 Posts: 694 | From: Newport, RI (Middletown Technically) | Registered: Feb 2000
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Grrr, $25 to fill up my Cavalier. CAVALIER!
I'm scared to see what the SS will cost. With the headers and cam, it does not exactly get awesome mileage.
Posts: 1296 | From: Saginaw, MI | Registered: May 2000
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It is cheeper to fill up the SS with premiun than it is to fill up the truck.
The SS gets 21 mpg while the truck gets 13 mpg. Looks like the SS will get more use than I planned this summer. $.18 cents a gallon diferenceits a toss up Posts: 3091 | From: Canton Mi. | Registered: Oct 2002
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