Hi, It seems that as soon as a rumor comes along of higher gas prices, for whatever reason the oil barons have found it excusable to raise them, the local gas stations get into a race to see who can get out to the boards to put the higher prices up! Amazing, they jumped around $.50 just overnight. (You can sure bet that this hurricane that just hit the southern U.S. has definitely be a God-sent for the good old boys in the oil business.)

You watch, in the end the goverment--that's you and me folks--are going to have to pay the bill to build the new refineries they've been yelling about instead of the oil companies themselves. But after all, there's no sense in the big boys in the golden board rooms having to spend their well-earned monies to keep their companies afloat when the government can build them for nothing. After all, they have more important things to do with their money. There's politicians to buy, campaigns to finance, women to woe, countries to influence, etc., etc., etc. Ah, the hard live of high finance.

Take care, Sgirty

Ah, the good old times of paying $2.00 a gallon. :-)

Around where I live gas prices went up 48% since April of this year. Pretty soon we will be paying $5 - $6 a gallon and at that point I will have to go on unemployment because I will not be able to afford to commute to my current job anymore.

BTW, gas this morning was $3.11 and I expect to see it up another 10 - 15 cents on the way home.

Ah Heck.. I remember paying .... A Buck A Gallon.......

It was only like 3 or 4 years ago............

Hi all,

Come over here, you'll be paying around $8.00 a gallon here. :-)

I can't belive what it has come to. I'm paying out about $90 a week in gas. So, now I have to decide wheather or not to try to stick it out, or to go to my boss and plead to them to lay me off. Right now as it stands, I'm only making $35 more working 50 hours a week, than I would be on unemployment and staying home. So it does'nt take a genius to figure out what I have to do. I have to admit, this is about THE most stressful time in my life and gas prices are just adding to it!

Jay

As of 1700 local, REGULAR gas: $3.30! And I'm job hunting, so I've got to drive. What a mess

Art

3.50 at Mclures,
3.30 at Speedway,

:-) :-)

Larry,

At least 35% of the United States refinery capacity is shut down. Hence, the current bump in gasoline prices.

Feel free to lady about gas prices but don't start a flame war. Max and I live in the same town and we would be happy to pay 3.09...

Shaun

Hmmm...My 65 year old mother is a part owner in several oil companies. So am I. So are millions of Americans. We hardly live the life of high finance, although I have helped influence a country or two. I never have subscribed to the belief in "big boys in golden board rooms," or in big business in general. Big business isn't some Monopoly fat cat characature-it's me, you, anyone who wants to invest in his future, and that of his country. By doing so, you take a chance with your money. Those willing to take the risk enjoy the profits, or suffer the losses.
I remember paying $1.29 for gas in Northern Michigan in 1980. Twenty years later I found a place in Texas selling at $.79. Weird, huh? Even at today's prices the cost of gasoline has not kept up with inflation, and it still isn't as expensive as it was for me in Berlin in 1984.

As for the government bailing out the oil companies-
I worked for Good Hope Refineries in 1981, at that time the nation's largest independent, in Norco, LA. outside of New Orleans. (Undoubtedly underwater as I write this) When they went under, financially speaking, no one was there to bail them out, although Shell, with a refinery across the street, did buy them out. Again, capitalism at work.

I just can't get excited about this issue. Gas can go up another buck for all I care. My wife and I made certain choices when we married-where to live, what to drive, etc... She works three miles from home. And I... well, my uncle pays my travel expenses when I go to work.

The writing was on the wall years ago. Maybe more folks will heed it this time.

Nothing will get the government's attention quicker than rising inflation.
Tuesday September 6th,we all should ask for a 3% raise.

3.09/gal in Kansas. They had the prices off the signs this Am so I suspect they're getting ready to raise them yet again.

Hi, Can't wait for my Chevy HHR to get here. That 4 cylinder and standard shift is going to double, at the very least, the gas mileage I currently get on this truck with it's V-8 and auto trans! Then a new K and N air cleaner system, when it's offered for this particular vehicle model in the near future, should add at least another mile or two, on top of that. I also hear tell there's some kind of new system offered from some after-market people that takes the place of the current factory system on motors that reclaims gas fumes and recycles them back into the motor that is supposed to be better than the factory-produced one. Have to do some more checking on that one. My goal is around 30 to 35 mph without invalidating the factory warranty. And I think that can be comfortably reached without all that much trouble. After all, the technology for motors getting 50, 75 and more mph has been in place for decades, it's just a matter of gettting to it and applying it personally. (I'm getting in touch with some of the engineers I used to work around at GM and get some of their ideas as well.)

I'm also going to do my very best to stop driving any more than necessary, and try to combine my trips more and more as I go along in hopes that this will allow me to bypass the gas stations even more often.

Sounds something like a holy war doesn't it? But I'm not making any kind of political statement or trying to influence anybody else one way or the other. It's just something I'm doing all on my very own. A few years ago I got ticked off at the quality of shows coming over that electonic idiot box in the front room and have pretty much 'eliminated' that from my personal life (and that most definitely has be a PLUS), so this new decision shouldn't be any harder than that one was. We all have to decide what's important in our lives, and what is crap, and make the adjustments acccordingly.

(Besides, with some of the money saved blowing out of the exhaust pipe, I can buy more models!!!!!!!!!!)

Take care, Sgirty

wow, were payings 1,35 for the regular cheap gas, and 140 for hte supreme il thing twice about buying my first car!)

Frank

You guys are showing your lack of age...when I first started driving, getting a buck for gas from dad meant something near 4 gallons! :-)

That said, the first post talks of high prices in Ohio. Not surprised. On 9/11, my wife and I were making a mad dash trying to get home from Nashville in the rental we refused to give up til we got back and saw prices at or above, that amount as the idiot DJ's flamed panic. Some stations may even have gone up to $5.

I topped off Wed morning at $2.69/gal for Mid-Grade. 24 hours later it is $3.60-something.

That is not a problem. There's a lot of things I consume that work out to way-way more per gallon than gas & some of them can be cut back .... Try working out your fru-fru latte's, bottled waters, etc in cost/gallon & figure out where your money really goes.

The problem right now is supply. The devastation on the Gulf Coats has cut us to about 25% of normal distribution & even if it ramps up to 50-60%, it'll be cheaper to sell all that in Raleigh than haul it to us .... So I'm biking for the shorter shopping runs these days .... saving the vehicle for big stuff, or maybe even emergency evac if a hurricane shows up here ....

But it isn't, as one person suggested, the oil companies -- it is the consumers. (Well, the speculators on the stock market are a big factor, but ...)

When people stop demanding DVD players in cars & start demanding fuel efficiency we'll be better off. When people start making fuel efficiency a status symbol instead of overweight SUVs, we'll be better off. And so on ... to include the consumer/voter demanding the government put teeth in standards rather than just bringing home the pork ...

My suggestion, one which solves two problems -- Close all the drive-in/up windows !!!!
-- We quit wasting fuel idling in queues for no reason, and,
-- Many overweight, out of shape, folks will get some exercise by walking into the bank, eatery, etc ...

OTOH, I am using the current fuel prices & shortage to get out of cutting the grass & weeds -- purely for public-spirited reasons, of course ...

John

.....hmmmmmm,..........interesting thread.

At first I wanted to ask ....."what does this " The writing was on the wall years ago. Maybe more folks will heed it this time.....mean? But then being older, discretion won over.
Instead, I wil pose the following simple questions......

WHY are gas prices as high as they are?........honestly?

WHO is profiting the most from this increase?

and finally......( )...Why is Canada paying so little?.......honestly?.........

Tread.

Tell me that is a joke right???


On my way home tonight gas here was $1.30 per litre, it takes 4.5 litres to make a US Gallon...so thats $5.85 a Gallon, put that into US funds, and you are looking at, $4.94 US a US Gallon.

We were told today, that because the US refinery situation is down 35% that the Canadian gas companies figure there is no competition, so they can charge what they want.....called price gouging....but what are you going to do????

Give it another 48 hrs, we'll be at that price too...although, you'll be paying more as well...it's a vicious circle.....

Invest in a Trek...I did

Gas prizes took another step in the wrong direction today. It's now 9,1us$ a gallon.

Put things in perspective...At least we all have a roof over our heads, food and water in our bellies and reasonable assurance that when the sun rises tomorrow we will still have them. Practice conservation folks....that's what we did in '73 Dump the SUV's slow down to 55 don't jack rabbit at the stop lights. ONe thing for me is it sure got quieter around here. No more big pickup trucks with flow-master (SUPER NOISY) exhausts, drag races btwn the lights. My town used to be 85 percent SUV / Pickups I look around now and it's 60 % cars

Simple reason for that - they're selling them all in Spain! In the small sleepy town I live in, we have dealerships for every conceivable U.S. Auto manufacturer. I was even sneaking around the dealerships thinking about a SUV for myself. SWMBO however, has put the foot down ...Jim

Hell, don't let discretion stop you. Where's the fun in that? Being older, surely you too remember the gas lines in the seventies, and the even/odd days for tanking up. If I'm still being too vague, it means we saw way back then how this nation could be so easily paralyzed, but other than a few temporary knee jerk reactions (like the awful Pinto-like Mustang, for one) we did little to correct the problem.
I'm certainly no Luddite-let Al Gore advocate doing away with the internal combustion engine all he wants-but damn, it's time to wise up about how we live here.
I don't mean we should all be driving 120 cc "tricycles" like in the PI, (even though my Dnepr with sidecar is little more that that) but let's face it, people who bought vehicles they can no longer afford to drive are suffering from a lack of foresight.

3.16 a gallon here in town.

To tell you guys the truth, I am scared. With everything going on in the world today and gas rising, I think there will be a major display of civil unrest very soon.

~Chip

Chip, I don't think you are too far off the mark there - as someone once said, we are only two meals away fom barbarism...Jim

http://2babesandasoapbox.blogspot.com/2005/08/few-questions-we-all-ask.html

I thought this was an interesting read, might shed a lil light on the whole rising gas prices.

Sean