Getting to work if gas hits $5.00 a gal?

[Dixie Flyer]

Gas is climbing, climbing, climbing, climbing.........

Where it stops nobody knows...........

Currently......$3.35 (reg) here in Ga.

[bobhenry]

I saw $4.00 plus on the news last night. I need an electric car !

[canned o minimum]

My hi performance VW takes the hi octane..$4.03 per gallon here in So.Cal.

But I'm a self employed tree trimmer...business is as bad as it gets NOW..I won't be able to charge MORE to compemsate fer the rise in gas...so "I" will hafta take yet ANOTHER cut in pay to buy gas !

GOD,help us !!

[Catherine+twins]

I've been working 4 pm to midnight for the last 5 months (I fix computers where they have to be running 24h). Public transport shuts down here at 7:56, so I haven't been using it. But the kid-sitter has been MORE than eating my swing-shift differential, and I need to make it up, so I will be taking the bus starting next month anyway.

The kids want the trailer finished by the end of May so we can use it for the annual Cub Scout camping trip. Guess that's where the gas money is going!

Catherine

[SmokeyBob]

Haven't we been down this road before.
Wounder if prices will come down this time.

[Dixie Flyer]

Smokeybob says:

Haven't we been down this road before.

Why yes....yes we have.......it's a long road too. And it looks like we're going to be on it for quite some time.....unfortunately.

[Miriam C.]

Tell your congress and President to get the speculators out of the market and gas will come back down just as it did last time. And really regulation doesn't hurt when you are talking about National security and the National economy. If you don't work we all go down....

[starleen2]

Now when Gas hits the magic price mark and we start using less and less of it because of the price - everyone suffers. Remember that State and federal taxes are on each gallon of gas sold - a cash cow for the governments as long as we buy gallons and gallons of gas, but when we start buying less and less of the gasoline, then whose revenue is going to dwindle down?

BTW - when this last happened, the economy happened to go bust and creditors were not allowing speculators to drive up the price with borrowed funds. No one could get instant credit to bid up the futures market. So we bailed out Wall street so they could do it to us again - make about 2 million profit in one day for gas futures - who would not want to be in on that!

[Ageless]

Retired 2 years ago. Made a 44 day trip last year (9300 miles); found some places were already charging $3.50 for gas (very rural CA being the worst)

$4/gal won't affect much for me. I likely won't make any long trips but will get to many of the gatherings.

[Dixie Flyer]

Well, as we're seeing now, the cost of everything is going up. My wife tells me every week about groceries.

So, I believe.....if gas does hit the $5.00 a gal mark, the entire economy could collapse. (If that happens we may all be looking to hunt our hole! ) It will hurt every type of business imaginable. Airlines, hotels, groceries, shipping etc.

People will not go anywhwere outside of say...20 miles or so. They just won't be able to afford it.

Now, if you're rich and can afford it, cool, I'm happy for you. You worked hard to earn it so you won't feel it. (Too much....anyway)

Another thing, IF, the entire country boycotted just one gas/oil company say...BP, I mean NO ONE buy gas from them, then it wouldn't be long until BP dropped their price for fuel. And when they did, everyone would go buy gas from them. The other companies (the ones you went to during the boycott) would then drop their prices also to get their customer back.

Also, consider this, a barrel of oil is 42 gallons. (NOT 55 gals!) At say (today) it's $104.00 a barrel, gas here in Atlanta is $3.49 a gal. That means the gas company, investors, ie: speculators etc. have $2.47 a gal in that barrel. That's a $1.02 profit for them. However, Ga. tax is 25 cents a gal so the oil company's/investors profit is 77 cents.

In reference to Aunti M, she's correct, basically due to the fact that investors retreated from the falling real estate and global stock markets, they diverted their funds to oil futures. This sudden surge has driven up oil prices as well.

Plus, you have developing nations like China, India, Pakistan, and Indonesia consuming also. Like us, they're not going to stop consuming anytime soon.

I could go on about lack of refineries, weather catastrophies etc. but I think everyone gets the picture.

Finally, there is plenty of oil here in the US. IF, we uncapped and started using OUR OWN oil, and get off foreign oil, you would see prices go down in the Mid East. Why? Because of supply and demand. They'd have plenty of supply and no demand, thus they'd lower their price. BUT, we have to start using our oil here first to have that kind of leverage.

My apologies for going on so long.

[canned o minimum]

REALITY CHECK ! You will NEVER git everybody to join in on a boycott of any oil company. We as a nation are DEPENDENT on oil/gas.

Sum one is tryin to git a "botcott day" when nobody buys gas THAT day...REDICULOUS ! They will simply buy gas the NEXT day...nobody wins or loses !

Even tappin into the U.S. reserves will not help...jus deplete our reserves.

Anybody know how long Europe has been [payin exhorbitant prices fer gas ? YEARS "I" expect .

I'm all for gettin gas prices down, but haven't heard ONE intelligent suggestion yet.

I drive my truck fer a livin..well..NOT a livin any more..but if I want to work.."I" gotta buy gas !

[Kens]

Just hit $3.59 here today

[Ageless]

Saw it on the news today; it's not so much the price but how it affects income. In the western USA it's much less of a burden as income is higher. Where it takes a big bite is midwest and southeast states where it can take up to 12% of income for gas (out west it's less than 5%)

[Dixie Flyer]

canned o minimum said:

Even tappin into the U.S. reserves will not help...jus deplete our reserves.

I'm not really talking about on hand "reserves" we may have now. I'm suggesting we start new oil exploration here and get to work drilling. (Now I guess you can look at new oil exploration as "reserves"maybe)

We know there is oil in the Gulf, ANWR, Tx. Okla. East coast etc. Lets get to work bringing that oil up. And, (regarding reserves) if we do have wells that are capped, uncap 'em.

Plus, start building some new refineries. That's more work for folks. Now, some oil companies may say there is no profitability in building new refineries because of all the laws and regulatory restraints and issues. So no doubt there may be challenges there.

I just hate it when people say, "That'll take years." Well, no kidding, they said the same thing 15, 20 years ago. If we had started then, maybe we wouldn't be in this situation now. Lets just START and quit pussy footin' around.

We KNOW our demand far exceeds the supply of gas here in the US. (thus we import and are beholden to other suppliers, ie: Mid East)

All I'm saying is we can help with the supply end of it by using our own oil. And hopefully the price would ease a bit.

Finally, one thing is an absolute, it's only going to get worse if we do NOTHING.

[bledsoe3]

I work for our local transit agency and as a benefit I get to ride for free. Sadly, I start so early I can't ride it to work.
20+ miles each way = $225 a month in gas.