Gas Prices

[GeckoGeek]

Re: Gas Prices

Our gas prices don't fluctuate with the price of oil....it's still ten bucks a gallon.

Most of it in taxes.

No one really wants high gas prices, but as others have mentioned, it may be what we need to make some very big, important changes.

Like developing some real alternatives and not this feel-good conservation stuff that just delays the inevitable.

[joshuatree]

Re: Gas Prices

Most of it in taxes.

So maybe more city/state taxes on gas which should be dedicated only for road maintenance?

[SusieMisajon]

Re: Gas Prices

Dunno why. It's only eight bucks a gallon down the road in Spain.

[Enamorada]

Re: Gas Prices

Dunno why. It's only eight bucks a gallon down the road in Spain.

Good thing for Spaniards there's a whole lot of public transportation
I'd imagine there's some good public transportation in France too? Never been there, but I know in Spain, Italy and Greece there's pretty good public transportation.

[Enamorada]

Re: Gas Prices

Like developing some real alternatives and not this feel-good conservation stuff that just delays the inevitable.

Something has to change. Funny, I don't see any problem with the "Feel-good conservation stuff". Alternative fuels=less pollution (less crap in my lungs, thankyouverymuch) ...

http://alternativefuels.about.com/od.../2007bmwh7.htm

BMW has a pretty good things going on there!

[zff]

Re: Gas Prices

Folks who think the high price of gas is a cure for our ills are woefully misinformed.

I realize I'm really the only one here championing higher gas prices, and to be honest, I would personally hate to see it happen. I will readily admit I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I cannot think of a way to make our society more eco-friendly that's faster, simpler and would have a higher rate of compliance and participation.

I'm not an expert in anything remotely related to this issue, so I would not be at all surprised if I was misinformed. If there is a better way to make society more eco-friendly and it doesn't involve anything painful like raising the price of gas, I would be all for it.

What is it?

[matapule]

Re: Gas Prices

The problem is getting everyone to adopt the new innovative way of thinking.

It is going to take a President to rally the nation. You may be too young to remember JFK. He was a person with a lot of personal flaws, but he was able to inspire a nation with new enthusiasm, working toward common goals. Does Obama have what it takes? Only time will tell, but YES WE CAN!

Sure. Nobody said it was going to be easy.

Anything worth doing, is worth doing regardless of the cost.

Our gas prices don't fluctuate with the price of oil....it's still ten bucks a gallon.

Personally, I have no problem with $10 per gallon for price of gas. The addtional taxes on that $10 gas can be used to pay for the bailouts.

[matapule]

Re: Gas Prices

We will always have PTV (personal transportation vehicles) to haul our butts around in.

I have no idea what you are referring to.

Something has to change. Funny, I don't see any problem with the "Feel-good conservation stuff". Alternative fuels=less pollution (less crap in my lungs, thankyouverymuch) ...

I see nothing wrong with "feel good conservation stuff" as long as it leads to long term solutions.

I realize I'm really the only one here championing higher gas prices, and to be honest, I would personally hate to see it happen.

I would like to see it happen. Yeah, it's going to cost all of us a lot of money in other areas too, but in my opinion it is going to happen sooner or later anyway. I'd rather have it happen sooner.

I support your effrorts Zman, you are not alone. But it is only part of the solution. Continue supporting this proposal and I will watch your back.

I am admittedly naive and idealistic, but I would like to see a politician run on a platform of higher gas prices (via additional taxes), I would vote for her.......I think a lot of others would too.

[GeckoGeek]

Re: Gas Prices

So maybe more city/state taxes on gas which should be dedicated only for road maintenance?

Taxing gas up to $8/gal A good way to get one's life cut short. Especially for something that the government should have been doing (road maintenance).

Now, if gas prices stay low, I'd say Obama could get away with a 50¢/gal tax if it's promised to go to freeing ourselves from imports.

Alternative fuels=less pollution (less crap in my lungs, thankyouverymuch) ...

Uh, well, that's an agenda that I didn't think anyone here was concerned about. Where are you? If it was a concern for Hawaii the first step would be mandatory emissions testing like other states have.

BMW has a pretty good things going on there!

Until someone finds a price competitive way to create H2, it's a dead end.

I see nothing wrong with "feel good conservation stuff" as long as it leads to long term solutions.

And that's the whole problem. Everyone's dinking around with what looks like to be a 20% solution, leaving the other 80% to be solved. If we can solve the 80%, then we can see if we even need a 20% solution. Maybe the 80% solution will turn out to be a 90, 95 or even 100% solution. And that's the problem I see with all this "feel good" stuff. It's distracting us from the bigger problem that needs to be solved - halting energy imports from hostile nations.

[pzarquon]

Re: Gas Prices

Fascinating to review the start of this thread in 2008, watching the fluctuations and prices back then. $3.99/gallon at Lex Brodie's in May 2008. $2.08/gallon at Costco in December 2008.

Gas prices hit record high in Honolulu and statewide

The average price of a gallon of regular gas is $4.512 a gallon, a new state record, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. The price is 2 cents higher than yesterday and .2 cents higher than the old record of $4.51 set on July 24, 2008.

Honolulu also set a new record high with an average price of $4.40 a gallon, beating the old record of $4.39 set on July 28, 2008. The price is about 2 cents more than yesterday and 94 cents higher than a year ago.

[TuNnL]

Re: Gas Prices

Fascinating to review the start of this thread in 2008, watching the fluctuations and prices back then.

I don’t see what is so fascinating about it. Oil companies, like tobacco companies, have manipulated the public since their inception. The only thing curious to me is how hopelessly addicted industrial nations are to petroleum, and how the U.S. by its own admission, continues to lag behind. I saw a speech given by Department of Energy secretary Steven Chu on YouTube™. Eye-opening stuff.

[salmoned]

Re: Gas Prices

Are we lagging behind in our addiction or our treatment for addiction? Kind of silly to compare fossil fuel utilization to addiction anyway. As well, why blame oil companies for soaring prices, do you believe they are restricting production to raise prices? If so, you're dead wrong. Price manipulation is much easier for big-pocketed financial speculators (easy money makes for easy price manipulation), though a well endowed oil-producing country or two may guide prices almost as easily by manipulating supply.

[Kalalau]

Re: Gas Prices

Last time gas prices leaped it turned out to be because of speculators. At one point Morgan Stanley owned more oil than Exxon. Probably its speculation again. Economists will say we need speculative markets to smooth out the bumps for suppliers and consumers. You can make a nice case for that. But today a great deal of the instability in world capital markets (Greece, Ireland, Iceland, Portugal, and now the US) is caused by speculation, and a great deal of economic and political instability in the Middle East is caused by leaping food prices caused by Wall St. speculators. They are not smoothing out bumps, they are causing them. They are parasites, their function needs to be eliminated or heavily regulated. Why should the economic well being of literally billions of people, and political stability of the whole world, be sacrificed just so these parasites can bleed even more billions of dollars?

[Ron Whitfield]

Re: Gas Prices

Why should the economic well being of literally billions of people, and political stability of the whole world, be sacrificed just so these parasites can bleed even more billions of dollars?

Why stop now when it's been working so well for them? With this last week in big oil news we see there were again no lessons learned from any of the latest blarring warnings and deaths. Offshore drilling has resumed full bore with grand blessings, viable alts/innovations are further shunned, the Gulf is still doomed from BP/US, and the little guys are still sucking it while those responsible are making even more $$$$$$$$$$$$$. Gasoline has been a royal scam since prohibition, enjoy the rape, there's much more to come.

[escondido100]

Re: Gas Prices

the president has the ability as others before him to require a rule change on hedge funds. instead of buying on a twenty percent margin require a 50 to 60 percent buy in. this would curtail the speculators tomorrow. also require opec to not tie gas prices to the dollar but to let them float ..they would increase production and prices would fall.
obamas biggest contributer is a hedge fund guy...George Soros...so this probably wont happen any time soon... but it could alleviate the problem if he really cared about the common folk filling their tanks of gas.
i remember during his campaign he thought it would be fine if gas reached the same prices as europe. i wonder what he will do?