US drivers should brace for higher pump prices-AAA (Reuters)

[Up2Late]

(I don't know, does anyone believe * when he says that he's concerned about Oil prices?)

US drivers should brace for higher pump prices-AAA

Thu Aug 11, 2005 12:30 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. drivers, already paying the highest retail gasoline prices on record, should expect further increases at the nations pumps due to skyrocketing costs for crude oil and a flurry of recent refinery problems, the AAA motorists group said on Thursday. "We think American drivers should brace themselves for a fairly large increase, as soon as this weekend," said Geoff Sundstrom, AAA spokesman. "It could be an increase of around five cents a gallon nationwide."

Prices at the pumps are already zipping along at a record near $2.40 a gallon on average, up more than a dime from last month, according to the AAA's daily survey of 60,000 stations. But a recent surge in the cost of crude oil to $66 a barrel, and a spate of problems at the nation's refineries, from California to the Gulf Coast, will mean further steep increases in fuel prices.

"The price of crude oil is a big reason pump prices are in record high territory," said Sundstrom. "On the other hand, we have a long-term issue to resolve with regards to refining capacity. With fires and operational problems of various kinds recently, it looks like gasoline supplies have become crimped," he said.

Around 10 U.S. refineries have reported unplanned unit shutdowns since mid-July. Refineries typically become more prone to outages in late-summer as they try to keep up with strong demand. While U.S. retail gasoline prices are at a record in nominal terms, when adjusted for inflation they remain below the peak of around $3 a gallon hit in the early 1980s.

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

<http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=9349463&src=rss/topNews>
(more news at the link above)

[nannah]

1. i paid $2.62 a gallon yesterday

after the 3 cent discount at Safeway Gas; the billboard price was $2.65. That was in Aberdeen, WA. I paid $2.52 a gallon last week.

[leftylady]

3. We just jumpted to $2.359.

[Delphinus]

18. Welcome, leftylady!

:hi:

[leftylady]

28. Thankyou.

[Tempest]

6. $2.65 in Bakersfield, $3.02 in Los Angeles

I hate to think what it is in San Francisco, where the highest gas prices in the state are.

[Carni]

44. I just paid 2.52 about an hour ago

The owner of the gas station is blaming it on taxes he claims the tax per gallon is 57 cents - then he said if our governor would negate that state tax that is would go down 10 or 15 cents per gallon.
Whatever the case is I am sick of working to put gas in the car to get to work.

[Up2Late]

2. Related : Brent oil price surpasses 65 dollars for first time (AFP)

(NOTE: Brent Crude usually lags behind WTLS Crude by a few Dollars)

Brent oil price surpasses 65 dollars for first time

11/08/2005 16h20

LONDON (AFP) - The price of Brent North Sea crude oil reached a new high of 65.66 dollars per barrel in trading here, on supply concerns amidst tensions in the Middle East and disruptions to refineries.

The price of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in September surged 1.67 dollars from Wednesday's close to reach the record level and break above 65 dollars for the first time since the contract was first traded in 1988.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in September, meanwhile hit a record 66 dollars per barrel, and has now risen almost 3.70 dollars in less than a week.

Brent North Sea, also a light sweet crude oil, is used to price more than 65 percent of the world's traded crude oil supplies, according to London's International Petroleum Exchange (IPE).

<http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/050811161918.brbf6vyb.html>
(more and a photo at link above)

[ClintonTyree]

4. The price jumped .07 a gallon overnight...........

here in western NY. We've broken the $2.50 a gallon barrier and now stand at $2.52 a gallon. Am I ever expecting the price to go down? :eyes: Not until the oil-men are out of Washington, anyway. Which leaves us 2 1/2 more years of rising fuel prices.

I thought Dumbya was going to "jawbone" the Saudis? :eyes: The oil companies and Wall Street are pushing the prices ever higher because they're "worried". :puke: Yeah, I'm worried too, but not about the same things they are.

[hatrack]

5. AAA? Try DUH

Gee, ya think?!? :eyes:

[rkc3]

7. There were always concerns from OPEC that if oil prices were too high

their customers would reduce consumption or find alternatives sources of energy.

Now we find that consumers haven't really reacted to $65 a barrel prices. That combined with an administration that is very friendly to the oil industry should tell you something about oil prices in the future - don't expect to see $45-50 a barrel ever again.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

10. They will react soon.

I was talking with a good friend yesterday. Ex UBSWarburg. He has been talking to some of his buddies in the energy sector. They expect the populace to light up, white hot, come the heating season. They also expect that one of the things that will light people up, besides the heating bills, is the fact that with the large cuts in home heating assistance, the energy market professionals expect quite a number of deaths amongst the poor this winter, from freezing to death.

True dat.

[hatrack]

11. Tell your friend that, since N. American natural gas has alreay peaked

Winters are going to become very interesting times to live through.

[rkc3]

Dominion sent me a note last week to let me know my gas contract

was to be renewed in November. I should receive confirmation in early September regarding gas rates. And to top it off, they assured me they were working hard to secure the lowest possible prices for me.

I already pay more than $13.00 per mcf. Can't wait to see the damage this winter.

[LisaM]

8. Highest retail prices on record IN THE U.S.

We've paid far less than people in other countries for years; why do you think our railway system has become so compromised? We drive everywhere in cars and truck all of our goods instead of sending them via rail.

I have always thought our gas prices were too low.

[tabasco]

9. Yeah, I believe he might be concerned they're too low.

He's done everything possible to raise prices with the exception of nuking Saudi Arabia.

Of course, Bush works for the Saudis, who have more power in our government than we do.

[Az_lefty]

12. suspend the federal fuel tax...

do this until the price of fuel stabilizes. It'll lower the price of gas and make those in Washington a little nervous. As long as these jokers think we're just going to take it, their not going to do anything.

[Up2Late]

13. "suspend the federal fuel tax?!?" But who's going to pay for the War then?

Rich People?:shrug: :sarcasm:

I wouldn't doubt that this is why "...we were able to cut the PROJECTED Federal Budget Deficit" last month.

Yes America, We ARE paying for this stupid War, at the Gas Pump.:mad:

[sintax]

14. F-16 uses more fuel in one hours flight than US motorist uses in 2 yrs.

Abrams tank 4 GALLONS/mile

7.5 billion gallons of fuel requisitioned for Iraq War in 2005, more will actually be used.

[Up2Late]

16. Exactly Right, those are the most overlooked reasons...

for "Increased Demand."

Add up every new Armored Personnel Carriers and Armored HUMVEE's they keep adding. I wonder how much those use, and how much they drive them around Iraq these days.

[sintax]

23. What I have heard is that the ARMORED Humvees

get somewhere around 5mpg. Just anecdotal. The other figures I cited are exact.

US Navy uses 16% of worlds diesel fuel
Aircraft carrier uses 150,000 gals/day

[RummyTheDummy]

76. Aircraft carriers run on nuclear power

The last of the fossil fueled AFCs went to the bone yard in the early 80s.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

27. Not mention with the heat, they idle 24/7 to keep stuff cool

inside.

[drfresh]

57. amen - someone should amplify this

It'd make a good point for 2006. Oppose war -- lower gas prices

[phantom power]

15. Except, it's "those in Washington" who make the decisions about fuel tax.

So... if removing it would make them nervous, it's not likely to happen, eh?

Also, I wouldn't count on the price "stabilizing" any time soon. There isn't a single country which isn't increasing it's fuel consumption, every year. America's fuel consumption grows a few percent each year, and China's consumption is growing at an unbelievable rate.

In that environment, no stabilization is possible.

[NickB79]

20. The price of oil has reached the point where it can't be stabilized

With the US continuing to suck down huge quantities of oil, and India and China coming on strong with their demands, we have reached the end of the era of cheap oil. We are peaking, and you will never see prices stabilize on a rapidly shrinking commodity that is still in high demand.

[Demeter]

17. Enronned at the Gas Pump

Back when Enron was bankrupting Grandma Millie in California, the decision makers shut down plants for no good reason to restrict supply of electricity and jack up prices.

Well, this summer "they" (whoever they may be) are shutting down refineries, restricting the gasoline supply and jacking up the prices. And fueling the hysteria in world markets, besides.

You would think somebody would get a clue, here. Regulation and breakup of monoplies must be restored and strengthened, for the security of the nation.

[Mithras61]

19. As much as this is likley to get me flamed...

this is a good thing.

So long as we have cheap oil/gasoline, we will NEVER invest in any significant way in any sort of renewable or environmentally friendly energy solutions. While it's true we have the lowest cost for fuels (refined oil products), we create that by refining here instead of importing refined products.

The fact remains that energy companies will not find alternatives to oil until the costs associated with making the change can reasonably be recouped. That isn't going to happen until oil prices hit highs significantly higher than where they are now, once again, GOOD!

[area51]

21. "this is a good thing."

You realize, of course, that it'll be the poor that'll be fscked over by high fuel prices, & that the nazi party in power in this country couldn't care less how many poor die (from lack of A/C, lack of heat).

[sintax]

24. In fact you are right and the US consumin'human pays the lowest price

of any industrial nation by far. The problem is that the US is unique in that its public transport is shameful while at the same time completely dependent upon moving mass amounts of goods and humans EVERY DAY for its "economic" (in quotes for this is no economy within the construct of a parasite) survival.

"To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it - please try to believe me - unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop.  Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, "regretted," that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these "little measures" that no "patriotic German" could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing.  One day it is over his head.

[truth2power]

66. Sintax...is that paragraph a quote from another work?

Starting from, "to live in this process...". Just curious. Thanks.

[durablend]

25. You must be JOKING

You actually expect Bushco to tell the energy companies (who are making money hand over fist) to work on finding alternative solutions (that they may not be able to make a killing on)?

GET REAL!

[Mithras61]

61. No, actually I DON'T expect Bushco to tell them...

I expect the consumers to tell them. We tell them by the thousand ways we DON'T use an automobile or truck (buy local produce, ride a bicycle, etc). We tell them by installing better insulation. We tell them by buying vehicles that get better mileage or (best of all) don't use gasoline. We tell them by finding and using alternatives without them or their help (some folks have been doing it for 35 years and others are starting to catch on).

Bushco tell them? Are you kidding?

[BiggJawn]

31. Consider yourself flamed.

I won't cuss you out directly, so imagine a angry fat man who wonders how the fuck he's gonna get back and forth to work and the grocery calling you every name in the book.

"So long as we have cheap oil/gasoline, we will NEVER invest in any significant way in any sort of renewable or environmentally friendly energy solutions. While it's true we have the lowest cost for fuels (refined oil products), we create that by refining here instead of importing refined products."

In the mean time, I fight the losing battle of riding a bicycle 30 miles a day and struggling to keep my toilet from freezing this winter.

Your "Good thing" hurts the little guy the most. The fat-cat who's in a position to actually EFFECT policy change doesn't even know what it costs to fill his SUV up, and could give a shit.

Much like the urban "Limosine Liberal" who lives 1/2 a block from his bus stop and SpendyerBucks.

[Mithras61]

62. My good thing is aimed at the insulated, ignorant...

and lazy who have spent the last 35 years saying that "peak oil" is a myth, and that the "tree huggers" need to get a life, and so on. Now that what we have been predicting will come is starting to creep into their consciousness, maybee something really WILL be done.

In the mean time, you have my sympathies concerning how far you live from your place of employment and your "local" grocery store. I expect it won't be long before people are able to work more from their homes and get groceries from the corner store like they did when I was a child.

[jayfish]

33. Flamed.

We need to move on alternatives, but do we really want to destroy what's left of this shitty economy to do so?

Well more like a lick of fire than a real flame.

Jay

[Mithras61]

63. Unfortunately, I really believe that it is necessary...

that the economy suffer before John Q. Dumbass wakes up to the fact that his "fat 'n' happy" lifestyle is dependant on despoiling the planet. When it hits him hard enough, he will find ways to cut back and use alternatives. It hapopened before, and will happen again (think whale oil for lighting...).

[newswolf56]

34. Your argument is based on a myth because the money for mass transport...

that was available from the federal government via the Urban Mass Transportation Administration was all residual from the Great Society years of the Johnson Administration. Your glee also reveals an astounding lack of class-consciousness: what you are cackling at is the total and permanent ruination of millions of working families -- precisely why the Democratic Party is in such disrepute with blue-collar folk.

Here is some relevant mass-transport history:

From the LBJ era until the Reagan years, local governments could apply for UMTA grants with up to a 90/10 mix of matching funds (90 percent federal/10 percent local). But even after the wake-up call of the '73-'83 oil crisis, most local governments couldn't be bothered, and politicians higher on the proverbial hog simply didn't give a damn. Then all of those UMTA programs were methodically destroyed during the Reagan years -- UMTA itself was either abolished or radically downsized -- and nothing even remotely approaching the formal levels of federal mass-transport funding has ever existed since. With the federal deficit what it is -- not to mention the ever-skyrocketing cost of land and the ever-soaring costs of outsourced steel, locomotives, rolling stock etc. (note that all these wildly inflated prices are measurements of just how truly worthless the U.S. dollar is becoming) -- there will never again in American history be such money available. The needed mass transport won't ever be built because the money will never again be there. And this crisis will be the death of the United States: we have been fatally betrayed by our DemoPublican politicians, who in their harlot-hunger for petrodollars sold us out to the oil barons.

The magnitude of the forthcoming economic collapse is impossible to imagine because it is literally beyond anything in human experience. Within a very few years -- certainly no more than ten, probably no more than five -- we will have been reduced to the reality of any other Third World country or banana republic: a tiny, obscenely wealthy, malevolently omnipotent, infinitely vicious oligarchy lording it over a huge, desperately poor, utterly disenfranchised proletariat. As much as I hate to say it, I am now convinced the deliberate destruction of constitutional governance essential to preserving and expanding the oligarchy's power began the day after 9/11. All we are doing today -- whether via downsizing, outsourcing or ruinous fuel prices -- is seeing the coup take shape.

[Mithras61]

64. I don't think mass-transit is really a solution...

more of a work-around. We need to have alternatives to using oil-based fuels for everything from driving to work (as in "work from home") to transporting produce half a glode away for us (as in "buy local" - and yes, I do realize that means seasonal shortages). Mass transit is a good consumption reducer, and it really angers me that more hasn't been done along those lines (especially here in Houston, TX), but I never thought of it as a long-term solution (and people like Tom Delay who stand directly in the way of such development should be hung, shot, and drawn & quartered, btw).

The real "solution" is to stop using so much in the way of fossil fuels and to go with more renewable energy sources (like some of us have been saying for over 35 years!).

[FlaGranny]

65. It would be nice -

I have known about energy efficiency for a LONG time. Unfortunately, I have never been able to afford it. I'd love to become less dependent on fossil fuels and I can do it, too, if you'll point me to a grant of say mayble $100 thousand dollars or so?

[Mithras61]

67. Solar doesn't cost that much anymore...

nor do things like windmills. Solar is substantially more efficient than it was a generation ago, and the costs for outfitting an entire house are about the same as the original cost of the house. Building a house that is solar is cheaper (relatively speaking) than outfitting an existing house, because you can include things like heat sinks and biomass in the design.

If I recall correctly, Scott Adams rana contest to build a "Dilbert Ultimate House" and the total cost was estimated at around what you're asking for, but was completely self-contained as far as energy consumption was concerned (You can check it out here: http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/duh/). Most people wouldn't go as far (or need this much) but it has some really good ideas.

[newswolf56]

71. Brainwashed by Big Oil and Big Automotive, too many Americans...

reflexively think of buses -- slow, stinky, ecologically destructive, miserably crowded, often unsafe buses -- when we think of "mass transit." But real mass transit doesn't use buses and therefore is neither petroleum-dependent nor ecologically ruinous. Real mass transit runs on rails and is powered by electricity. As those of us who have lived in New York City know, such transport is fast and efficient -- so much so it makes owning an automobile an unnecessary luxury (precisely as it should be).

It is also many times faster than buses, the innate slowness of which is, nationally speaking, the biggest disincentive to mass transport use. For example, in Seattle, Ballard and the University District are nearly adjacent neighborhoods about 1.5 miles apart. To drive from one to another by car takes maybe 10 minutes; to walk between the two takes about 30 minutes. To go by bus from Ballard to the University District takes nearly two hours: you have to ride the bus all the way down town, transfer, then ride another bus all the way back to your destination. This is typical bus transport, made all the worse by Seattle Metro Transit's moronic (but cheap) "transit center" system, which runs all buses from central hubs rather than coordinating service on an east/west/north/south grid as NYC does.

Footnote: The utter obscenity of the mass transport shortage in Washington state is underscored by the fact that, with Bonneville, we have the second cheapest and second most abundant electricity in the nation (cheapest and most abundant is from the Tennessee Valley Authority: thank you FDR for a gift that truly keeps on giving!). Despite this obvious incentive for Washington state to build true rapid transit -- transit electrically powered and running on rails -- Seattle politicians have methodically obstructed all such projects. A 1980 legislative measure that would have built a statewide rail system was defeated by Seattle legislators (Metro furiously opposed relinquishing even the tiniest degree of independence to a state transit authority, and Seattle itself is dominated by a small but disproportionately powerful clique of plutocrats who oppose rapid transit "because we don' wanna be like Jew York" -- malevolent xenophobia combined with malicious anti-Semitism). Even today, construction of a minimal Puget Sound-area light-rail system -- already up and running in Tacoma -- is seven years behind schedule in Seattle, again the victim of deliberate bureaucratic sabotage and venomous resistance by the aforementioned Seattle clique. The point is that in Seattle, Big Oil didn't even need to buy off the politicians: anti-New-York-City bigotry and bureaucratic empire-building made under-the-table payoffs wholly unnecessary. But the cause -- whether payoffs or pig-headedness -- doesn't matter. Bottom line, the plutocrats, politicians and bureaucrats all collaborated in betraying the public: and now -- with America's private-vehicle-based transport system being destroyed forever by permanently skyrocketing fuel prices -- the pterodactyls are coming home to roost.

[Strelnikov_]

43. I Feel The Gathering Storm Is An Example Of How The Market System

is dysfunctional when it comes to infrastructure planning. In this case, the energy and transport infrastructure. Because of the lead times required to transform the energy and transport infrastructure once the ‘market’ signals a problem, through high prices/shortages, massive economic distress is now unavoidable, as concluded in the following report prepared for the DOE.

Realistic efficiency standards and development of alternative energy sources should have begun long ago.

This is different from the 70‘s in that supply will never rebound. The 70’s were short term shocks, efficiency and additional production eventually led to lower prices. This promises to be slow strangulation, concluding with a massive shock that will bring our economic system to it’s knees. With supply chronically outstripping supply, we are one Gulf of Mexico hurricane or one revolution away.

Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation and Risk Management.
Hirsch, Bezdek, Wendling, February 2005

www.projectcensored.org/newsflash/The_Hirsch_Report_Proj_Cens.pdf

. . .

Because conventional oil production decline will start at the time of peaking, crash program mitigation inherently cannot avert massive shortages unless it is initiated well in advance of peaking.

Specifically,
* Waiting until world conventional oil production peaks before initiating crash program mitigation leaves the world with a significant liquid fuel deficit for two decades or longer.
* Initiating a crash program 10 years before world oil peaking would help considerably but would still result in a worldwide liquid fuels shortfall, starting roughly a decade after the time that oil would have otherwise peaked.
* Initiating crash program mitigation 20 years before peaking offers the possibility of avoiding a world liquid fuels shortfall for the forecast period.

Without timely mitigation, world supply/demand balance will be achieved through massive demand destruction (shortages), accompanied by huge oil price increases, both of which would create a long period of significant economic hardship worldwide.

[pengu1n]

58. no flame - chill out!

Agree 100%

To those who say the little guy is shafted...well he is shafted anyhow - in a million ways. By governments and corporations that do not give a damn.

Oil/Gas is hugely undervalued. It is being used up faster than we pump it. What are we to do when it runs out? Stop being small minded - and consider the big picture everyone. Technology is NOT going to dig us out if this hole. Gas is going to hit crazy prices - and keep going.
Eventually - we will adapt - assuming the planet does not decide she has had enough of us!

When it hits $25 a gallon (on its way up)- I am sure the problem of carbon emissions will have been sorted. People will think about where they use it - and why.

Car pooling will happen, local economies will revive. Produce will no longer be shipped around the world. Life will slow down. Big time. Not only is all this needed - it will eventually bring a more sane and measured pace to our lives.


All this assumes that we do not enter some apocalyptic civil war as mass panic and starvation breaks out.

But then - as you can tell - I am an optimist!

[Nihil]

59. No flame here

I think your third paragraph shows incredibly misplaced optimism but
agree with your first two.

The difference is that it is not the energy companies or the goverment
that will "invest" but the end user. The coming winter will encourage
people to start thinking about economy rather than just grumping and
digging deeper into their pockets. People will actually start to DO
something because they have to (rather than merely being advised to).

I can see why your "GOOD!" hit a nerve with people who are already
feeling the pain but I think I can also see your line of thought.
I've just forked out £175 to get my cavity walls insulated ... not
because I've got money to burn, nor did I win the lottery but because
I sat down with a pencil & paper one night earlier this year.

Energy-saving bulbs, better insulation and stuff like that has been
on my to-do list for years now but has never quite managed to get
enough urgency to justify spending savings like that (rather than the
normal raising a family stuff). The payback period has been getting
shorter over the years but still stayed in the "grey area".
Once I figured in the trend for fuel price increases I had a "oh fuck"
moment and almost literally kicked myself for not doing it earlier.

It takes this sort of financial pressure to make people move back
to the "sensible way" rather than just sticking to the "easy way".
So yes, I agree that this could be a good thing if it gets people
moving NOW rather than in another couple of years.
The planet is still going to get fucked.
The economy is still going to get fucked.
The difference is that people who wake up now are more likely to
survive the coming turmoil than those who continue to live in denial.

[Javaman]

22. weeeeeeeeeeeeell, no shit.

[MisterP]

26. 2.759 here in SoCal: Nipples's solution will be to tout MTBE's benefits

[Up2Late]

36. O.K. I give up. Who's "Nipples?"

Even though I think I know, I don't want to make any faults assumptions.

[MisterP]

47. Schwarzenegger, for his obsession with his and others'

[newswolf56]

29. $2.67 in Tacoma, which means that driving is already too expensive...

for anyone who is definitively low income. But if you're a low-income elderly Caucasian, in Tacoma you're doubly victimized; you're faced with another problem -- one that the local Establishment refuses to acknowledge: you don't dare ride the bus because of the viciously predatory street-youth who attack elderly Whites at the bus stops and while you're walking to and from the bus stops. (This isn't about robbery; it's sheer hate-crime terrorism, and the cops flatly refuse to help. Absolutely shackled by political correctness, the cops react to the problem only when somebody gets killed, which happens maybe once a year.)

All of which merely adds to the fury provoked by these new fuel prices: prices motivated NOT by shortages, but by the we-can-charge-whatever-we-want malevolence of the oil barons and the viciously greedy politicians they own: not just the Bush Administration, but DemoPublican betrayers at every level -- the self-serving strumpets of both parties who have for the past 30 years denied America the public transport system it so desperately needed to avert the present-day collapse.

And total collapse is precisely what is forthcoming: there is no money -- nor will there ever be money again -- to remedially construct the public transport we need, which means that this time the United States is truly doomed: no economic recovery possible, merely sinking like one trapped in quicksand, ever deeper into the cesspool of a Third World economy, ever deeper into starvation and homelessness. Ultimately because our politicians sold us out to Big Oil.

[Up2Late]

49. Hey newswolf56, little off subject but, in you profile it says you're...

...a professional writer/editor/journalist. Are you retired, semi-retired or wanting to work from home? If so, do you have a Blog or a regular gig at a website? :shrug:

If not, you should consider it, because you do seem to be a good writer. You're a little more negative about the current situation than I am, (and believe me, that's saying something), but a lot of people are doing that now. That would cut your Car and Bus trips a lot.

You might even write to Skinner or one of the current "home page" writers here at DU, because they were looking for another writer a few months ago (I don't know if the DU gig pays anything though).

If you think you'd be interested, you should post something in the "Computer Help and Support Group" here at DU. I'm sure someone there could show you the ropes on getting a Blog or Website started.

[newswolf56]

54. Thank you for asking. I am retired, but the rising cost of living...

has forced me back to work to supplement my pension. (For me these fuel prices are a huge and worsening disaster). I was an award-winning reporter and editor with a journalism career that spanned 40-plus years. What little work I have been able to obtain via this come-back effort is from home, freelancing. Am only 65 and in relative good health, but media-monopoly personnel policies prohibit hiring any male my age, which effectively banishes me from the full-time workplace forever, so I am inescapably doomed. One of these days my income won't cover my expenses, and it will literally be all over -- the vicious bottom-line truth of life in capitalist America.

Thank you again for your interest.

[MaineDem]

30. Paid $2.33 on Tuesday; $2.48 today!

That's what I call a jump.

[BiggJawn]

32. AAA can KMA.

I saw $2.56 today.
Can't cope with this much longer, I already can't make it from paycheck-to-paycheck...

Fuck the AAA. I think the LAB (League of American Bicyclists) offers us more these days.

[Up2Late]

40. How's traffic where you are in Indiana?

i.e., do cars give you enough room, so that you don't feel like you are going to die at any moment when riding on the streets?

I grew up in Northern Indiana, and was amazed at how little respect people in cars an trucks give people on a bicycle here, in and around Atlanta.
VRRrroom VRRrroom Beeeeep Beep! YeeeHaaaaw!

[newswolf56]

42. Though I bicycled all over Manhattan in perfect safety, I wouldn't...

dare bicycle in Tacoma or anywhere else in Washington state. The motorists here despise bicyclists with a degree of aggressive malice that is truly unbelievable: the bigger/more expensive their car, the greater their hatred. (I tried biking here once on a borrowed ten-speed, was almost run down a half dozen times in as many miles, and have never dared do it again.)

[BiggJawn]

48. It's Kind.

For the most part, they really do "Share the Road" here.
Traffic permitting, I usually get the WHOLE lane as they pass far to the left, oncoming drivers wave, shoot, last week I even had a tractor pulling a huge plow pull over and give me more room than I needed to pass.
And he waved, too.

The route I'll be taking to commute is all county roads that parallel a state highway, so the traffic is almost non-existent until I get into the Burbs.

Then it's look out for the SUVs, because their "pilots" aren't looking for anything but the cellie # they want to dial...

I've been through Atlanta twice in a car. I'd rather take the Dan Ryan at 5PM....

[Danmel]

35. And the "Energy" bill doesn't raise CAFE standards

and I heard on the radio today that July sales of SUVs and large cars were through the roof. I guess these people really do deserve what they get, but I don't. I paid $2.49 today and that is the cheapest station around here. We paid $2.63 on Sunday for an emergency fill up- only bought $15 worth- which was not much gasoline!

[Up2Late]

37. July sales of SUVs are only through the roof, because the Auto...

...Industry finally figured out a new way to "polish Dog Shit."

They know the average "I what an SUV too..." type buyer is stupid, so they rolled out this "Employee Discount" sales gimmick, which was really nothing more that a new way to market the "end of the model year sale" to clear the way for the 2006 models.
(Note: the smilie is for the SUV buyers, not you)

[yasmina27]

46. I talked my stepson...

...out of buying an SUV. He was being lured by the "employee discount" con. He drives a civic that will be paid off in March, but a friend of his just bought an expedition with this "special" (he was conned into one of those deals with a balloon payment at the end). So my stepson was THIS CLOSE to buying a Cherokee. He pulls into the driveway today in his civic - Yeahh!

Yaz
Prius fanatic - silver 2002 & silver 2005

[hadrons]

60. your stepson will thank you soon enough ....

[yasmina27]

72. I hope so... n/t

[MaineDem]

39. I blame the President's party for not raising those CAFE standards

HIS Senators that killed that. HIS Party that didn't push it. This has to be a BIG issue doing the campaign next year.

[Bmongilly]

38. Hello, I'm new to this forum

Yes I hate high gas prices. Is there no end in sight?

Anyway, I bought me a cheap motorcycle that gets roughly 55 mpg so that will save me a bundle.

Excuse me if this message is out of place. I'll get used to this board rather quickly I think.

Have a nice day!

[Up2Late]

41. No problem, your message isn't out of place...

That was a fine first post. Welcome to DU :toast:

Here's a helpful hint, (this is not a criticism of your current post), it's best to read what other's have written on a topic and mostly respond to people you agree with for the first 100 or so posts, that will keep you out of trouble until you get the feel for site and the people here.

[Trillo]

45. 80s CEO pay bubble hasn't burst yet.

90s Stock market bubble which did burst
2000 real estate bubble, may burst, may just correct.
now an energy bubble likely won't burst.

Seems like worker pay needs to permanently and dramatically rise.
Living wage?

[durablend]

51. Living wage?!?!?

And take the money away from that CEO who needs to pay for that third house and fourth yacht?

What kind of anti-American terrorist are you?!?!?

[Up2Late]

53. I think Ken Ley (ENRON) ended up with 10 houses...

...several of them in Vail.

I remember how sad it was, hearing Kenny Boy's wife whine about having to sell one of the 5000 sq. foot Vail Houses. :sarcasm:

[barb162]

55. she's a real piece of shit just like her husband

I'd like to see them both in jail

[depakid]

50. What's with the double negatives on the poll?

Can't their writers even come up with a reasonably clear question?

What an idiot.

Larson himself is poorly educated- and this is well know in the state- but you'd think he'd at least hire someone who could do the job for him....

[Up2Late]

52. Sorry, I'm not see what you are seeing...

...What "...double negatives on the poll?" :shrug:

Are you looking at another article you'd like to share a link to?

[kestrel91316]

56. Stop wasting fuel fighting an illegal war, you dumbass (Bush)

[Seabiscuit]

68. Hey, yokels! I gotcha a Hummer H3 that'll get ya where ya wanna go!

So you can "tough it out". I also gotcha a great price for the Brooklyn Bridge!

[Toots]

69. Around 10 U.S. refineries have reported unplanned unit shutdowns

Doesn't this sound very similar to the Energy Crisis in California in 2000? The unplanned shut downs continued until Senator Jeffers jumped ship and democrats regained Control of the Senate and then miraculously the Crisis was ended the next day.

[Up2Late]

70. Yes, it sure does, but what pisses me off even more is...

...back when Oil was under $30.00 per barrel, I kept hearing on the Radio that U.S. Crude Oil Stock piles were at "Record Low Levels," and they didn't start re-filling those stock piles until the price had gone up to about $45.00 per Barrel.:mad:

[Barkley]

74. I bet these oil companies will still report record profits

Toots you are exactly correct. I remember it well.

[hippiechick]

73. time to tune up the bike ....

... and park the nissan. :)

[Barkley]

75. This prove that the neocons were RIGHT!

Iraq's oil revenues are really going to pay for war and reconstruction