Another Weekend, Another Record Gas Price

U.S. drivers are paying record prices to fill their gas tanks and they could see prices surge as much as 30 cents more per gallon over the next few weeks, according to an industry analyst.

U.S. average retail gasoline prices hit a record $3.4737 per gallon on April 18, up 15.66 cents from the April 4 average, according to the nationwide Lundberg survey of about 7,000 gas stations.

Higher driving costs come at a tough time for U.S. consumers, who are already struggling with higher food prices, a slowing economy, job losses and sinking home prices. In addition, surges in gasoline demand during the peak driving months of June, July and August and higher costs could force motorists to cut back on their vacation travel plans, or reduce spending in other areas.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[wolf58]

June 28, 2000

Gov. George W. Bush of Texas said today that if he was president, he would bring down gasoline prices through sheer force of personality, by creating enough political good will with oil-producing nations that they would increase their supply of crude.

''I would work with our friends in OPEC to convince them to open up the spigot, to increase the supply,'' Mr. Bush, the presumptive Republican candidate for president, told reporters here today. ''Use the capital that my administration will earn, with the Kuwaitis or the Saudis, and convince them to open up the spigot.''

Implicit in his comments was a criticism of the Clinton administration as failing to take advantage of the good will that the United States built with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf war in 1991. Also implicit was that as the son of the president who built the coalition that drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait, Mr. Bush would be able to establish ties on a personal level that would persuade oil-producing nations that they owed the United States something in return.

''Ours is a nation that helped Kuwait and the Saudis, and you'd think we'd have the capital necessary to convince them to increase the crude supplies,'' he said.

Asked why the Clinton administration had not been able to use the power of personal persuasion, Mr. Bush said: ''The fundamental question is, 'Will I be a successful president when it comes to foreign policy?' ''...

[wolf58]

yea I guess that didn't happen. here is the link to the rest

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A03E4D71030F93BA15755C0A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print

[thegreatgiginthesky]

Gasoline = Freedom, Freedom = Gasoline, Go out and pump some freedom into your cars.

[Bobby]

Something has to be done. NOW! This is what you put a man whose family made their fortune in the war profiteering and oil business in the White House. Plenty of war (based on lies) and gas prices up the ass. Even though Exxon made an $11 BILLION dollar profit last QUARTER. Plus, Exxon, Chevron and the boys are poised to get a lion's share of the Iraqi oil. Why do you think the U.S. is building super bases in Iraq? Why do you think Bu$h & Cheney want a fight with Iran? To keep us over there for a long time, to protect the oil for their buddies and to keep the cash registers ringing for Blackwater, Halliburton, the Carlyle Group, Raytheon, Lockheed, Bechtel and others. Gas was $1.41 a gallon when Dumbya became President. Now it's $3.50 where I live, and it's worse out west. In private business, Dumbya's "leadership" put his oil company Arbusto out of business, and he is doing the same to our country. By the way, one of the investors for his oil company, was the bin Ladens. Small world huh? The Bu$h family and the bin Ladens have been doing business for decades. But the sheeple have no idea. In the debate, ABC was talking flag pins, instead of gas prices. The MSM needs to be all over this stuff. So does Congress. But nobody is doing a thing. Just like the past 7 and half years.

[TheJibreelaMonsters]

Newsflash: its the EPA, your state EPA for starters. Next its supply and demand.

[Mort]

And another chance for more record oil company profits.

They could make a new movie... "If we charge it, they will pay."

[Gary47]

The headline sounds like the title of the theme song for the Bush Presidency.

[MetalCanuck]

This is the inflation Ron Paul was warning about...but stupid people prefer to vote for wedge issues than someone honest who knows what he is doing. Its too bad people still believe the media when they tell you who is good to vote for, its all a sham,

[kevinabt]

Pretty soon you won't be able to buy gas for any number of US dollars. The suppliers will want Euros or Yen, or (gasp) gold and silver. Iran and Venzuella are already taking the lead on this. Once Saudi Arabia overthrows the puppet regime they won't sell their oil for US dollars either.

[MetalCanuck]

Gold and silver is REAL money....people better be buying it while the paper dollar is worth anything.

[kevinabt]

Yes. I was being sarcastic which is not a good idea when typing.

[jsarets]

I believe that the weak dollar is inflating a short-term oil bubble that will burst, but there's no question that the price of oil will increase exponentially in the long-run, doubling every 6 years or so, until its distillates are no longer viable as combustion fuels.

It's a good thing our energy bill hardly includes any investment in developing thermal, kinetic, and optical renewable energy sources; modernizing the electric grid; and advancing electrochemical/electrostatic energy storage. Because fossil fuels will last forever, GHG emissions don't threaten humanity, we can distill the world's entire agricultural production to satisfy a fraction of energy demand, and the 10% efficiency of the water/hydrogen/water cycle makes my leg tingle like Chris Matthews. Or not...

Meanwhile, the global economy is more likely to crash because of food or water shortages in the developing world rather than energy shortages in the developed world, and the central ideological question is about whether market capitalist economies can control population levels without fomenting revolutions or whether governments should either control population or redistribute wealth to maintain social order.

Welcome to the Saturation Age, where there's simply not enough natural resources to match the supply of labor or the demand for commodities at these high and exploding levels of population and production efficiency, where return on investment takes a back seat to return on consumption, and where the central bankers lose control of a macroeconomic climate constrained by resources rather than capital.

[nomoredead]

google ' water power vs gas Fox News" interesting stuff......

[chronic]

This government needs to set a CAP on gas prices NOW!!!

[MetalCanuck]

Can't happen, you import:) Time to use less or save up.

[mcnote5150]

Fucking hedge funds! This is a cash grab, a parting shot of the last gasps of the Bush regime. Take the money and run! Anyone who vote Repug this year should be institutionalized and stuck with a much higher tax bill to off set cost to the people who never voted for these assholes..

[ceasenake]

A guy I see occasionally at work told me that Bush/Cheney are the only reason gas is going so high.

I asked him what happens when Obama becomes President.

With a strait face he earnestly told me that gas will go back down to about $1.85 per gallon. When I asked him why that would happen he told me that he had heard that Bush and Cheney are personally taking a profit off the top of every gallon of gas.

When I asked him how he came by this info he said he read it on Kos and heard something about it on Air America.

I shit you not!

[MajorKong]

I remember being told back in 2000 that we needed to elect an oil man to the White House so that he could keep the price of gas down. How's that working out so far?

[UnbiasView]

I remember back in the fall Hillary made a prediction the gas prices would drop in half if she was elected (When it was about $90 per barrel).

BTW, did you slap this guy? The only way gas touches $1.85 is if we nuke China & India so they don't have any people to use the fuel.

[alexaii]

In last week's debate, both Clinton and Obama said that when they became President that they'd investigate the oil price gauging. Why isn't that being done now???

[ceasenake]

$4.00 per gallon?

BRING ...IT ...ON!

[jesuswazasocialist]

In Australia we are now paying AUS $1.50 per liter, still more then you guys.

[Beachrunner]

This is a good thing. The higher gas prices go, the more people will car pool, use public transportation, drive less, and switch to more efficient vehicles. I ride a motorcycle and get over 40 MPG on regular gas. People will add solar/thermal/wind power to their homes. In the short run, people will conserve by using their heat and air conditioning less.

The economy will solve the Global Climate Change issue. And, by converting more and more corn and soy beans to bio fuels and driving up food prices, people will eat less meat and other foods that consume extreme amounts of energy. People will eat less in general, lose weight, and be more healthy.

I'm looking forward to the day when gas is $9.00 a gallon, like in Europe!

[Ping]

BeachBummer wrote:

"I'm looking forward to the day when gas is $9.00 a gallon, like in Europe!"

You must be rich, elitist, and completely insensitive. Seniors who are living on fixed incomes, especially in rural areas are really being hurt by high gas prices and high food prices. It's always the poor who suffer the most.

Bio fuels are the idea of the lame and stupid. Using foodstuffs as an alternate energy source is immoral and unethical. As long as there are humans who are undernourished on the planet conversion of food to energy should be closely regulated.

[kevinabt]

The high price of food is squeezing the poorest nations who have to import food to feed themselves. Americans have no shortage of food whatsoever at the moment. When food prices go up poor people go hungry, rich people don't lose weight.
Less effective sources of energy (like solar/thermal/etc) will be used more though since they will be less uncompetative.
High prices can only be seen as a good thing if what you want is to have less, and pay more for everything. If you think about it, every one of us could choose to use less and pay more even if prices were low. But no one does, because no one really wants that. Not much choice in the matter now though.

[ceasenake]

Amen brother,

Pain is weakness leaving the body! The sooner it becomes unpleasant for most people to pay for fuel, the sooner real solutions will begin to come out of the woodwork. We shall soon be living in interesting times ...

[UnbiasView]

What will be coming out of the woodwork is a bunch of broke ass leeches asking for government handouts.

[UnbiasView]

If you thought poverty was a problem now, $9.00 gas would end this entire country . . . but that is probably what you are looking for anyways right?

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

It will end this country as we know it but it won't end this country. There are plenty of ways to have a decent life without everyong having a 2 ton vehicle.

[TakeSake]

You're ignoring the $30,000 in national debt per person here. Who pays that off?

[Vyvjala]

Get ah rope!.....................