16 Responses to “Gas Prices Climb”

1. David Huie Green on July 21st, 2013 2:51 pm

   REGARDING:
   “Prices have never really dropped since about 2000 or 2001 – - – one brief instant near the close of GW’s term saw it hit $1.80….and immediately shot straight up.”

   We have different memories.
   I remember paying $4.20 per gallon in July 2008.
   People wanting to replace autos didn’t know what to buy so they held off.
   That led the auto makers to the edge of bankruptcy since they weren’t selling their cars.
   That pushed their suppliers to the edge of bankruptcy since they weren’t selling them parts.
   That pushed most businesses to cut back on manufacturing and payroll.
   That pushed people to cut back further in spending since they didn’t have as much disposable income.
   That pushed the entire nation to vote for someone who was not related to President Bush.

   Further, I’m pretty sure removing ethanol is not the cause of cost rises. They don’t have to remove any even if they wanted to start selling it without ethanol. They would just have to not put more in the next batch sold.

   AND
   “a lot of the world hasn’t recovered from the Great Recession so I don’t see how demand is driving it.”

   Demand is up in India and China. That is several billion people wanting more, willing to pay for it.

   David for CNG

2. Friction against the machine on July 21st, 2013 12:57 pm

   Prices have never really dropped since about 2000 or 2001…occasional fluctuations but never really falling. In contrast Consider the OPEC boycott of the 70s…by the late 80s gas was .78 a gallon….after Saddams Kuwait invasion it rose to $1.50 a gallon around here…then by late 90s it was down to $1.00 a gallon and held in that area
   for several years….now-one brief instant near the close of GW’s term saw it hit $1.80….and immediately shot straight up.
   The role of government in this cannot be diminished. The Feds are
   determined to regulate of us out of existence. The EPA’s so called “summer blend” and all the ethonal requirements. Know why none ethonal gas is more expensive? They have to take the ethonal out of it to sell.
   It’s ridiculous the regulations and pointless EPA rules that cost all of us more money because of the burdens it imposes. You can blame it one demand and market factors if u want but a lot of the world hasn’t recover from the Great Recession so I don’t see how demand is driving it.

3. David Huie Green on July 20th, 2013 8:00 pm

   CONTEMPLATING:
   “=higher gas prices….do the math…it all adds up!”

   and yet, sometimes prices fall
   DOES NOT COMPUTE

   David for better scapegoats

4. Friction against the machine on July 20th, 2013 4:26 pm

   Collusion between big oil+Obama regs+tree huggers+a radicalized EPA=higher gas prices….do the math…it all adds up!

5. MM on July 19th, 2013 9:57 am

   The price of gas in 1922 was $3.50 (adjusted for inflation). Of course, the price has gone up a lot in the past decade. In 1999, I bought gas for $0.85 in Mississippi. If this keeps up, I’ll have to trade my Silverado in for an Obamoped.

6. Duke of Wawbeek on July 19th, 2013 5:19 am

   When gas prices go up people always look for a scape goat and they always point their finger and racist comments toward Wall Street.

7. LegalEagle on July 18th, 2013 10:57 pm

   BIll, you are on to something. You hit the tip of the iceburg. We invaded Iraq after 9/11 for ONE SIMPLE REASON. OIL. Sadam was dumping cheap oil on the world market and keeping the price down. He was not in line with OPEC or the big oil companies out of Texas (home state of Bush). People can’t figure it out but ever since we took out Sadam the price of gas/oil has gone up everyday it seems like. Oh and we did all that in the name of the war on terror.

   I have told people for years that big oil runs a scam on us by selling OUR oil on the world market and then importing oil to help keep the price up.

8. Robert S. on July 18th, 2013 6:54 pm

   Saw a program the other day saying the US produces more oil than is currently being used.
   HOWEVER, it costs more to move it from the fields where it is pumped to the refineries. Pipelines, trucks, barges cannot move the oil in an efficient manner to be processed so it is sold to other nations.
   Seems it is then less costly to the owners of the petroleum companies to import our gasoline from other countries who can easily — ie sees — hold us hostage by shutting off the Suez canal or some other part of the world.
   All the cost and lives lost for the USA have won us nothing in the middle east.
   But it sure has helped some people get very wealthy.

9. David Huie Green on July 18th, 2013 2:43 pm

   In the past five years due to hydraulic fracturing, the U.S. has gone from importing close to 90 percent of its natural gas to taking steps to become an exporting nation.

   Give the industry a few more years to complete the switchover and we won’t especially care what the international price of petroleum is because we won‘t get our supply from elsewhere. What is more, the nations which fund terrorists will soon lack the funds from sales for themselves and will spend their time killing each other or changing their attitudes. (They would have never left the early Iron Age without our help.) With a number of them getting nuclear weapons, it should be spectacular.

   By the way, the same system can possibly be used to more effectively extract geothermal energy anywhere on earth, not just near hot spots. Imagine if the proposed electrical power plant near here used geothermal power supply rather than nuclear, natural gas or coal.

   David for a bright future
   despite a few cloudy (possibly radioactive) days
   along the way

10. David Huie Green on July 18th, 2013 1:36 pm

    Well said, CW.

    Many think private property is actually public property and neighbors should only be allowed to do whatever we are willing to let them do.

    David for freedom and property rights

11. bill on July 18th, 2013 10:44 am

    The price of gas in late 2002 was about $1.30, then it went up after we invaded Iraq, peaking around $4/gallon late in 2008. It went down to about $1.60 early in 2009 then started going up again but this time it seems that refineries were shut down for maintenance and/or repairs. This raised the price at a time when US supply was greater than the demand. Now they are speculating that the trouble in Egypt will close the Suez canal and once again artificially raising the cost of oil. Who’s at fault? Pay no attention to the men behind the curtains pulling on all those levers.

12. CW on July 18th, 2013 10:13 am

    @Jane
    The oil isn’t “ours” to sell, it’s a world commodity. Other counties (like China) have growing middle classes and they can afford to pay more than they did before. We can either compete with that or not buy it.

13. anti potus on July 18th, 2013 6:51 am

    thanks potus.

    Change? got no change bro!

14. c.w. on July 18th, 2013 6:15 am

    Hang on folks, you ain,t seen nothing yet. Five dollars a gallon will soon be here!

15. Jane on July 18th, 2013 5:12 am

    Every summer and before every long weekend, Christmas holidays, etc. gas goes up. So people stop driving around so much and eventually it goes down because they can’t sell it. If we would stop selling our gas overseas we would have cheap gas again which would help the economy. (Of course it wouldn’t help the oil companies that much and they are a powerful lobby in Washington).

16. eeyore on July 18th, 2013 3:35 am

    …ok, so how much was it a year ago? two years ago? 5? 10?…see a pattern…