The great American Gas-Out

[scooter]

It's back.
Now that prices are again above 3$ at the pump in the US, there are links circulating about not buying gas on May 15th or something.
Firm and absolute proof that the American education system has gone down the toilet.
I saw high gas prices coming on 9/12, sold the guzzler, got a small 25mpg city station wagon. Also have a 55mpg bike. No whining from me, thank you. I'm conducting my own, real, "boycott". Silly games like these one/three day deals are just foolish. Supply and demand...it's Economics 101.
Folks actually take them seriously! We're doomed...

Dave

[twinstead]

Yea, I didn't buy any gas today. But that means that I have to buy it eventually, no matter what. Until we Americans stop buying 10mph behemoths I have no sympathy for us.

Still, even though my car gets about 27mpg, it still is a big hit since I commute about 30 minutes one way. The difference between 1.50 and 3.00 a gallon is substantial.

The way I see it: if the weaning of our economy off fossil fuels would have started in earnest like it should have in the mid 70's, we wouldn't be having this problem today.

[gillianren]

Hey, I won't be buying gas on May 15. Then again, I don't have a car.

(Actually, I might--we're going to take a few trips when Graham's in town, but I don't know when that's going to be. He can't tell me.)

[PhantomWolf]

What a bunch of whiners. Assuming my conversions are right (US $0.72/NZ$1) then we're paying $4.22 per gallon.

[jaydeehess]

Doing the conversions, I pay $US 3.93/ gallon(USA)
($CAN 4.35/ gallon(USA))
$CAN 1.14/liter

Now here's a crazy NAFTA tidbit. Canada signed NAFTA which stipulates that Canada will export 60% of its oil production to the USA. This results in our sending most of it south to be converted to gasoline and then shipped back so we can buy it back.

Mexico does not have this stipulation in its NAFTA agreement. the biggest difference?

Mexico nationalised its oil production in (IIRC) 1938 while Canada's oil production is run by foreign companies(Exxon, BP, Shell)

[scooter]

We Americans are spoiled rotten...and we just demand more.
It's really embarassing.
I find it funny that in the last 3$ price spike, the press was all in an uproar, resulting in Congressional inquiries, etc. Huge noise.
Where is the "press" outrage now? What has changed? The last spike had Katrina to at least partly to blame...why the sudden watchdog press silence here, with no great reason for the price spike? No exec dressdowns by an indignant Congress?
Does the press drive public opinion at will...or at least make it "visible", to the same end? Who's driving this public opinion train, or even "defining" it?

[gillianren]

scooter said:

No exec dressdowns by an indignant Congress?

Our state legislature's looking into it here. Last I looked, we were at $3.29/gallon in the cheap station down the street--that's the cheapest price in Olympia, usually. (Yes, I know; still cheaper than most of the world pays. However, it's more expensive than most of the US, because Washington has very high state gas taxes--that we voted to keep, so we could keep certain of our services like police and firemen.)

[BertL]

Ha, I only drive bicycles. No gas needed.

[Data Cable]

Try it without oxygen.

[reynoldbot]

I made myself a vow to seriously cut down on my driving once gas hit $3 a gallon. It has and now I drive as little as possible. I can't afford to pay $35 a week to fill up my car. Thank God I'm not in Houston right now or I would have to fill up every couple days.

[Jason]

You can get away with riding only bicycles in Holland - the country is practically made for them. It doesn't work nearly as well in Utah.

[echnaton]

On reason gasoline is spiking in price right now because domestic inventories are very low. There have been an unusually large number of planned refinery outages for maintenance and upgrades this spring.



The large amount of capacity shut down is in part because of refineries have been running at above average levels for a while to take advantage of strong refining margins and need to make upgrades. The capacity reduction has been scheduled for months and most of the decisions were made when margins were much lower. Spring is a good time for maintenance because there is a break between the end of heating oil season and the summer gasoline demand spike. As you can see from the diagram inventories built up to a very high level before the shut down and we have been drawing them down since February. With inventories this low now, at a time when they normally rise we are in for an expensive summer.

Another factor is the upcoming switchover to summer gas blends for several big metro areas. The summer blends are not uniform and cannot be mixed with each other or with winter gasoline. This causes some disruptions in supply and reduces competition from refiners that cannot deliver summer blends. Regulation (and cleaner air) can be expensive.

I’m stuck with my gas guzzling Durango. No matter how I look at it a new car payment is going to cost me more than the marginal savings in gasoline.

[gillianren]

I got the forward today from someone with whom I went to community college. I explained, very patiently, why it wouldn't work and what people should do instead. (You know, conserving energy wherever possible?)

[twinstead]

gillianren said:

I got the forward today from someone with whom I went to community college. I explained, very patiently, why it wouldn't work and what people should do instead. (You know, conserving energy wherever possible?)

I always wonder what part of 'reduce demand' some people don't understand...

[BertL]

jason said:

You can get away with riding only bicycles in Holland - the country is practically made for them. It doesn't work nearly as well in Utah.

True. My suggestion for everyone who has problems with gas prices is to move to Holland.