Is $2.50 a good price per gallon?

[underpants]

nice how the oil industry can change the pricing floor on their own.

Think about it- $3 is now actually the norm in a way. $2.50 which caused great outrage what LAST YEAR? is now a great price. Yippeee!!! $2.50!!

Professional wrestling meets petro politics with the normal lack of resolution. See if this sounds familiar:

W will take credit for the price going back down after the pockets are full from spring breaks and such.
When the price gets jacked back up for the "Summer driving season" and everyone raises hell W will swoop back in and "jawbone" it back down. When the price get jacked back up for the "Christmas holiday season"...well the midterms will be over by then so expect the price to stay up there.

Either way this is more than just a trend. They know just as well as readers here do that this cash cow is finite, maybe not in their lifetime but it will be over in about 50 years. Gots to make that money while you can you know.

$3.00 will probably seem like a great price come next summer.

[napi21]

1. I've been saying thissince this price increase BS began!

They did the same thing back in the 70's. Gas was .35/gal, then magically there were shortages, stations out of gas, long lines, you could only buy gas on even/odd days depending on your license plate #, and gas prices went up to .95! When they finally settled down at .65, the public was happy! The oil companies had successfully changed the piblic mindset!

I still believe that was the goal from the beginning this time too.

Really sad thing is, IT'S WORKING!!!!!!

[acmavm]

2. Next summer? How about next week (we go a holiday

coming up, don't cha know)?

[underpants]

4. I know

but I think they will hold it steady and instead of CNN saying "you may want to look in the mirror" (Soledad this very morning) we will hear "Hasn't changed" and then the 4th will come around.


Actually May 29th is Memorial Day the official unofficial beginning of summer. A month away but I get your point.

[phantom power]

3. What's the cost of using a finite resource?

What's the cost of continuing to accelerate a developing climate catastrophe, that's likely to kill off some number of people with nine zeros after it?

I'm not asking to flame you (or anybody else), I just think those are good questions to ponder. What's the dollar value of a resource that can't be replaced, and which kills people in the present and in the future, when we use it?

I don't know the answer either, but I have a feeling $3/gallon is still too low...

[underpants]

6. That is a good point

but if you mention "peak oil" to most people their eyes would gloss over and as soon as they understood what you are talking about they would wave you off.

BTW- your point in NO WAY supports the theory that I just thought up and wrote on the fly so next time keep it to yourself. Freakin' always gotta complicate things huh?

:evilgrin::bounce::spank:

[phantom power]

13. The fun thing is, you're probably still right.

Oil and gasoline prices are not rising because the oil companies want to price their product fairly according to external-costs. They're high because of some combination of market-uncertainty due to geopolitics, and opportunistic price-gouging.

It's just a coincidence that a true externalized pricing would also be high. A "just" system would take those extra profits and invest in the Great Transformation to the post-fossil economy. But we know that aint happening. They're taking their profit winfalls and making themselves even more filthy rich than they were.

[rucky]

5. I'm going to use this psychology to get my daughter to eat more veggies.

Load up her plate with broccoli, and tell her she has to eat it all, then take some of the broccoli off the plate as a favor (leaving what I wanted her to eat in the first place), so she graciously laps it up.

[underpants]

7. Very good

Veggi-politics

[Speck Tater]

8. $3.00 gas is CHEAP!

Back in the 1950's a gallon of gas cost as much as a paperback novel. Today it only costs HALF as much as a paperback novel. It's a real bargain at $3.00.

[uppityperson]

10. and milk costs only $3.00 a gallon too

:sarcasm: It is NOT the $3.00/gallon that bothers me, it is to whom the money goes.

[Sinti]

9. Personally, $.01 is too much to pay for killing ourselves and every

other living thing on the planet. Real leadership would demand that we find clean and renewable alternatives right now, to hell with the free market. The technology is there, it can be done, there is a lot of untapped energy (not oil) available on earth. It's not alchemy after all. It's only the political will that is sorely lacking.

But, yes, $2.50 will look like really cheap gas probably sooner rather than later.

[MacDuff]

11. ummm, those shortages in the 70's

were real - look into it on Wikipedia if you like

and this price is based on the WORLDWIDE price of oil/barrel - which is at an all-time high
this is what happens when demand exceeds supply - get used to it, adjust your life (buy a hybrid, ride a bike, move closer to work) - this isn't going to go away in the long run, it may go up and down a bit, but the trend is going to be up & up & UP...

cheap gas is not a God-given right for Americans - Europeans pay somewhere in the $6+ per LITRE for gas - with oil trading for them at the same price it is for us - why the difference? because European nations tax the hell out of gas - and use the money to build trains, subways etc. - every been to Paris? did you need a car to get anywhere?

US gas is TOO cheap IMHO - I'd like to see payroll taxes replaced with energy taxes - you save energy, you pay less tax

also, if you want to see a small (temporary) reduction in the price of gas, convince that idiot in the White House to unequivocally state he will NOT attack Iran - and watch (world) oil prices drop - mmmmm maybe 20%? (for a while - China still wants more & more oil, so does everybody else - this isn't going away)

[Sinti]

12. US gas is TOO cheap IMHO - tell that to the poor dude who has to drive

to work because there is no public transportation, and doesn't have an extra $10 at the end of the month to go to the movies with.

[RebelOne]

14. I remember those shortages and the gas lines in the 70s.

And when the price went up to over $1.20, we thought we were being ripped off.