higher MPG ... higher gas prices!!!

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by ChazInMT

Funny thing, I don't remember gas being $1.80 in 2009. Isn't that when Obama took office? Yeah, I guess we voted for change.

It wasn't $1.80 for very long, so maybe - like me :-( - you didn't get a chance to fill up at that price.

Also (apologies if this is too political) if you look closely at the gap, you'll see that the price took a dive right around the election, and started climbing again right around the inauguration. Read whatever you like into that...

[ChazInMT]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Also (apologies if this is too political) if you look closely at the gap, you'll see that the price took a dive right around the election, and started climbing again right around the inauguration.

Yeah, I saw that, I was just being an a$$. Who knows how it all works! In all seriousness though, it does seem like high fuel prices do suck the life out of the economy in a hurry though.

Seems to me the theory holds that oil prices jump on fears of crisis in the middle east, and gasoline prices are affected by a shortage of production capacity due to no significant new refineries having been built since like 1977.

It is all so very complex, I really don't believe 1 single person or nation can affect it. All we can do is try to mitigate the damage by driving good cars efficiently, and maybe gripe about it.

[Frank Lee]

I wonder: Is the life is sucked out of the economy? Unless my entire region is in some sort of bubble insulated from the rest of the world, people right now seem to be enjoying a higher standard of living than at any time in prior history! The hotels, restaurants, bars, and places to shop all have packed parking lots. Most of the vehicles are new, or at least a hella lot newer than mine! And most of them are huge and inefficient yet people can afford to gas 'em up and blast all over all the time anyway. Nobody is interested in buying perfectly good existing housing; I don't know what today's yuppies are called but they still lust for McMansions out on the edges of town in clusters of lil subdivisions a.k.a. sprawl. It's considered a necessity to spend hundreds of dollars per month for phone, net, and t.v. service; nobody bats an eye at that. And from the looks of things, nobody is going hungry either.

[ron]

here in calif most people I know have 3 pockets sewed shut

[Frank Lee]

Would that be in the $120 jeans that they bought with the pre-ripped holes in them?

[ron]

only the -itches Frankly, the rest of us wear Kirkland

[redyaris]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I predict your laughter to cease at a much lower price.

I predict that at double the price of fuel [$4/gal increased to $8/gal] the demand in the USA will drop less than 5%.

I predict that at 4X the price for fuel: $16/gal, the demand in the USA will drop by less than 15%.

I will still be laughing with my fleet average of over 100 mpg and driving 40% less per year, and I will stil be able to afford the price of vegitables.

My last prediction is that it will take a price rise of over 8X to get us away from fossel fuels and into renewables!

[Frank Lee]

45 cent gas price rise happened in just the last few days, with no explanation, and all indications are it's not done yet.

Judging by the soundtrack of my community, everyone is making a concerted effort to burn off that icky old cheap gas so they can fill up on nice fresh $4 gas.

[user removed]

6.78 cents per mile to fill the Fiesta today. I paid a penny a mile in the summer of 1968 when I got out of high school at 17 and worked 40 hours for $22.79 take home pay. Now they send me close to a grand a month in Social Security.

regards
Mech

[Frank Lee]

OK, got an explanation... sort of. It seems two refineries are down for an extended period for maintenance. Don't know why; don't know why they couldn't coordinate and do one THEN the other.

Anyway, MN is set to make a new high record ave. gas price. Lotsa whining already; get ready for an EM activity spike!