#%$^$#$@# Gas Prices!! - Page 3

Hmmm. Although apparently doing the conversion from british to american gallon gives about 1.2009480519438251 US gallons for every British gallon. Hmmm. That gives us about $4.7513295772987397759 for every gallon of petrol here. Not so bad I guess. At least we beat the Swedes Unless conversion sites are wrong of course

Cheers

Well, speaking for the US, each state (and in some cases many counties in a state) has very different laws regarding gasoline formulations, which also vary by season. A refinery has to be stopped, retooled, and restarted just to make a North Carolina blend as opposed to a South Carolina blend, and so on.

Added to that, China and India are consuming gasoline at breakneck pace, and accelerating their consumption even faster than the US.

Added to that, US SUV sales just had an all-time record month in April (per Wall Street Journal earlier this week). = big gas guzzlers just burning that gas. I frankly don't understand why anyone can justify some gigantic landbruiser unless your job truly requires it, and the worst part is those people who drive giganto-SUVs with "Be Green" bumperstickers. Do as I say, not as I do...

Added to that, the US economy is improving, and a lot more big rigs are on the road = more diesel consumption.

Added to that, the US just had a record cold winter. Many homes heat with oil. In a poor economy, people also skimp on the required periodic maintenance for oil furnaces = lower efficiency = more oil burned.

Added to that, analysts say US $5-$10 of the per-barrel oil price is due to fear (terrorism, war, etc. after the attacks on Iraqi and Saudi oil facilities).

Added to that, per Wall Street Journal again, the world's major oil fields are on the down side of their yield curves. This means each barrel of oil starts to get a little more expensive to extract = per-barrel price goes up over the long run. We are already tapping all the easy reserves, and both because of shareholder and executive shortsightedness but also more because of all the non-constructive enviro-whiners we are not tapping any innovative or other sources or hydrocarbons. Nor are we daring to go back to nuclear, nor are we seriously researching fusion, nor are we going to space to set the foundation for extracting hydrocarbons from Jupiter's moons, for example, in 50 or 100 years, or inventing ways to store raw sunpower undiluted by atmosphere and shipping it back to Earth somehow for local use (implementation detail ). I could go on, but you get the point.

During World War II the US government (and I'm sure others) constantly admonished people "is this trip really necessary?" Today we live in an era of affluence where gasoline is still cheaper than milk, we expect to have it all and cheaply please, and we forget that when adjusting for inflation gas (in the US, anyway) is still *much* cheaper than 20 or 30 years ago, and that our cars get twice the mileage and generate one percent (yup) of the pollution of 30 years ago.

Finally, without taking sides, I am glad that US President Bush is resisting short-sighted calls to affect the market and keeping the US Strategic Reserve full. Better the country have some emergency gasoline than all the mega-SUV drivers get yet another government subsidy (what do I mean? In 2003 and 2004, if you buy a 6000 lb. or heavier SUV, you can get a tax break for it here... Sheesh, how about an "I'm sorry" environmental contribution to future generations instead???)

Dazza

If you want to get inside the mind of the American consumer, read the book Affluenza by John De Graaf, there is also a PBS special on it. They probably show it through the BBC as well. Anyway, read that and you will understand why pollution is not a concern, and bigger is better for most americans. That does not apply to all americans, but it applys to a vast majority, our media keeps us ignorant with capital intentions, its not surprise when they are owned by huge coorporations =).

Beg to differ. US Media is *anything* but capitalist-friendly. US consumers like bigger because they drive more, have more roads, and greater distances between suburbs and cities or between cities, and because our government-run train company is a complete disgrace. Plus there's a certain "machismo" - shared in the US by many women too - certainly obvious in Europe too where SUVs are selling more and more - to having the biggest hunk of metal.

Yep. Pretty much every single gas station in California has diesel. You can buy it in all of the 50 states.

you dont think the media is capitalist friendly? where do you live? apparently not in the US.... i believe the statistic is 5/1000 leading scientists would be skeptical on the topic of global warming, on tv 8/10 scientists they would show you would be skeptical on the topic of global warming, the way things are portrayed on tv are very much out of proportion, and very much misleading.

all this information about bush using false information, uranium, tubes for nuclear weapons, etc. etc. etc. was out THE DAY AFTER HE GAVE HIS 48 HOURS TIL WAR SPEECH in March of 2003, it was out the next day, it took the media nearly a year to break the story, and when they broke it, they made it sound like it was brand new information. different topics, same result, same type of misleading, global warming will be the same way, they way will report way after the fact, the media is reactive, not proactive.

Zhubbard is right. Media is capitalist friendly in the US. Turn on any major television station and prepare to be brainwashed (or at least they will try )

nope that's the 91 gas. expensive kind

Hah, you know nothing, I remember taking a two week road trip back in 1969 from one end of California to the other and back again via the long, round about way (maybe 2000 miles altogether) and the whole tab for gas was only about $30 bucks. We got that much from the various hitchhikers we picked up en route.

Brainwashed <> capitalist friendly

CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, and NBC have overt leftist agendas. Fox has a pretty overt rightist bent. Unsubstantiated numbers out of thin air (5/1000 scientists or whatever) don't mean a thing. China and Russia both have rejected the Kyoto protocol in strong language: it's not just the US that "dares" to question the enviro-radicals' *totally* unproven theories. Heck, climatological science is just getting to the point where we realize that we are heading into an ice age, and that Greenland and Iceland were much warmer (and agriculturally active) 1000 years ago. Our scientific evidence so far is a microscopic view of one second of a million-year climate path, and any *honest* scientist will tell you so.

The Bush paranoid wackery is just not worth responding to. Prove it, then I'll waste my brain cells on all that Howard Dean nonsense. One can have tons of legitimate disagreements with Bush's administration and agenda, but all that conspiracy stuff - puhleez. Were you out talking about all the deaths around Clinton in the 90s too?

And yes, I do live in the States. It's just that when I turn on the media I don't start out with a preset frame of mind that I expect the media to confirm (for example, "corporations are by definition evil - why is this station not reporting that 24/7???" Hmm... maybe there are delays between event and reporting while sources are proofed etc., this used to be called "thorough" research and reporting. But no, everything is an evil conspiracy. Sometimes I wonder how people who think the entire world is a conspiracy get out of bed in the morning.

Finally, if you really believe the media is capitalist-friendly, you clearly have read not one atom of reporting on Enron, tobacco, asbestos, and now even gasoline. Did you see a shred of defense of any of that anywhere?????

I just paid $2.50 for 87 this morning in Southern Cali... oh how nice it is to live here around all the rich pricks that can afford the expensive gas.... ARGG

pelazem.... read buddy. read.

you sounded like bill o'reilly, fox news is slightly to the right? slightly!!!??? but all the other stations have a completely left agenda, lol, msnbc? msnbc is mini-fox. if any of them even have the slightest left agenda its cnn, but its very slight. being someone who is biased to the left, its hard to say i can regonize any sign of agreement with any of the networks. also if you dont think those networks have an agenda, and if you dont think there are a lot of politics floating around at their corporate level, you are blind.

did you miss the whole clinton era? was it not 24/7 monica lewinsky??? it bush years to get any flack for his screw ups. his screw ups have been a lot more devestating to this country than a blow job. also i dont know if you know that his cousin his the head hanco of fox news, (the one slightly to the right.) anyway, i dont want to pollute these boards with my opinions, its not what they are about, but you need to read, and read a lot.

have you heard of greenhouse gasses? those are real, they do come out of your tailpipe. they are also derived from the maneur laid by the cattle you consume.

you are right about the different ages, that is true, but snow melting off mountain peaks that havent been touched for years, masses of ice breaking apart and disapearing slowly that have been in that same state for millions upon millions of years..... ill let you do the math. do me a favor though, if a disaster does occur, stand on the beach, and preach your BS then. you, bill oreilly, sean hannity, something novak, rush limbaugh, michael savage, etc. can all be washed away... never to be seen from or heard again. =)

I went to go fill up today and it was 2.61 for 91 in SoCal

This is exactly why I never discuss:

1. Religion

or

2. Politics

with my clients.

-Craig

SUVs.... grrr... yep, they are getting more popular over here now. Mainly with women. Big style. Think they like the idea that if they screw up then at least they won't be hurt. Mainly because they are inside a tank. Horrible cars.

Over here bigger seems to better for some women drivers and blokes who will buy a motorbike and ride to work on it with suit trousers in about 10 years. Sheesh. Personally I prefer the smaller but extremely powerful cars. I use a fair bit of petrol (good old turbo), but nothing like a big SUV.

Cheers

I got a GTI Turbo, so I have to put 91 otherwise I burn out the turbo... bummer

Just thought I would bring this back. Just saw on the news that some parts of London are now charging £1.09 for a litre of petrol. Thats pretty much 2 dollars on the nose. For one single litre. Now we are cooking with gas.... or looking for a wind farm anyhows....

Heh, then they mentioned that of that £1.09 we pay 80p in tax. Put it this way, apparently the US pays on average about 8p in tax on a single litre of petrol. Cough. Looks like big demonstrations for the weekend. Tops. Last time the whole country ground to a halt and you had to stay at home

Cheers