Hello $4 gasoline!

[Joanne98]

Oil futures retreated from a new overnight record above $103 as the dollar gained strength and Turkish forces withdrew from northern Iraq.

The slumping dollar and tension in the oil-rich Middle East have been among the factors in crude's dramatic 19 percent rise in February.

Still, many analysts believe any declines may be temporary and that oil is poised to rise above $103.76 a barrel. That's the price many believe to be oil's all-time high, on an inflation-adjusted basis, set in early 1980 during the Iranian hostage crisis.

Gasoline and diesel prices, meanwhile, continued to soar.

Gas prices rose 0.3 cent overnight to a national average of $3.164 a gallon, creeping closer to last May's record of $3.227 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Diesel prices jumped 1.5 cents to a new record national average of $3.642 a gallon.

While most Americans fuel their cars with gasoline, most of the products they buy are transported by trucks, trains and ships that burn diesel. While gas prices are unlikely to rise as high as $4 a gallon, diesel may well pass that psychologically important level this spring, boosting prices of nectarines, computers, clothing and virtually every other consumer product, said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service in Wall, N.J.
I don't see why they think it is "unlikely" that prices will top $4. The trend is certainly heading that way. Things are not going to improve in the Middle East any time in the next few years.

Remember the bad old days of Bill Clinton when oil was $23 a barrel and about a buck and a half at the pump?


Let's take a close look at what Bush's energy policy has meant to America over the last seven years.

(All prices adjusted to current dollars).

Gasoline price the day Bill Clinton left office - $1.54/gallon
Gasoline price after five years of oil men Bush & Cheney - $3.16 (and climbing)
Increase in gasoline price - +105.2%

Price of a barrel of crude 2001 - $27.29
Price of a barrel of crude 2006 - $103.05
Increase in price of a barrel of crude - +277.6%

Exxon share price 2001 - $40.83
Exxon share price now - $86.87
Increase in share price - 112.8%

Exxon profits in 2000 - $18.8 billion
Exxon profits in 2007 - $40 billion (est)
Increase in profits - 112.7%
http://www.thoughtcrimes.org/s9/index.php?/archives/2285-Hello-4-gasoline!.html

[bronxiteforever]

1. Kick & R-

[Mnemosyne]

2. Greedy bastards. n/t

[ananda]

3. Bush when asked about the probability of $4 gas by spring..

.. said glibly, it's not $4 now.

I've decided that Bush is one of those limited
loners that the filmmaker Guillermo del Toro
was portraying in The Devil's Backbone.

Bush has never been properly socialized to feel
part of a human community and has never figured
out how to solve problems decently.

[Hydra]

5. Bush is a natural product of the system

I don't know why people are so surprised. We idolize people who have hundreds of millions, and in some cases, billions of dollars. You don't get that unless you have a monopoly and you screw various people over.

Why should Bush care? It doesn't hurt him or his base. To him, we're just a bunch of stupid cattle that complain a lot. I'm having trouble arguing against that point these days.

[Hydra]

4. a + b = c

Anyone who thought having an oil man in the WH was a good idea needs to be shot.

[Ravachol]

6. Well... that was inevitable...

Gas prices in Europe are already about 6$ a gallon, reaching as high as 8.50$ a gallon in some places. Here, in Canada (where I live), it is fluctuating between 3.75 and 4.32$ a gallon.

Since oil is rapidly disappearing from this planet, prices are going up. Bush policies didn't help but that was something bound to happen sooner or later.

[MattSh]

7. AND, the value of the dollar is falling like a rock.

The less a dollar is worth, the less it buys. And the dollar is losing value against every major currency, and a number of minor ones too.

[Skittles]

8. nice try

people in Europe and Canda get much more for their money - we just get the shaft

[GOPBasher]

9. OK, I hate Bush as much as any human being on the planet.

See my blog if you don't believe me. However, I really don't think we can blame peak oil on Bush.

[mwb970]

10. Does anyone else use a gas discount plan?

The grocery store where I shop (in Columbus) gives me 20 cents per gallon off on gasoline bought at the store's gas stations for every $50 in purchases (including gift cards for places I buy from anyway). Yesterday I filled up with $3.09 gas for $1.69 a gallon! (I usually end up with more like 60 or 80 cents off, but even that helps a lot.)

The two major grocery store chains in Columbus both offer this kind of deal. Is it being done in other cities? It really takes the sting out of the gas prices, especially since I was going to buy those groceries and household supplies anyway,

[katty]

11. almost to $4/in Ca-we're at $3.85 - I see $4.00+by yr's end