Thread: New Record High $139

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On my way to the Dr. appointment this morning gas was $3.85 9/10teenths. Diesel $4.41 When I got home my wife had to go to work. Checking the CHR not much going on I went to Yahoo’s home page to see what the highlights were.

There it was.
Oil prices jump $11 to record high above $139 a barrel

They are calling for oil to be $150 this summer. I called the closest station, which is 13 miles from our home. I asked if they had raised the price since this morning? The girl said it was still $3.85. I wanted to know if they would be raising it before I could drive that distance, she asked then came back to say they would be raising it to $3.99 within the hour.

We were having tornado warnings for our area so I toss a coin so to speak do I go to beat the increase or play it safe and try to avoid the tornado? I go for the price savings. I put $96 dollars on the plastic card, if gas goes over $4.00 I can put gas in my wife's car so she can go too work.

Is this insane or what? I think the next President should 100 days to get a grip on what is going on or kick him out.

our gas went from 3.99 yesterday down to 3.85 today. Thats the calm before the storm!!!!!!!

That's the way it was here the other day when my wife filled up $3.99 now this morning $3.85 but it's going up big time this summer.

The ironical thing is that the failure of Congress to allow drilling for oil almost anywhere led to this problem and then Joe-Average will blame the Bush Administration when in fact that administration was trying to get more oil all along. There is a good chance the election will throw the baby out with the wash water and we will end up in a worse situation! I want an Aptera but my wife says no because it is not a station wagon!

http://www.aptera.com/

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

I just saw that on the news, and they showed some gas stations where regular is already about $ 4.39 and Diesel was mid $ 5 range. They said today was a triple whammy day.........oil hit an all time high, unemployment took a huge jump (highest rate since 1986) and the Dow dropped. For a change they didn't talk about home foreclosures, except to mention Ed McMahon is losing his home to foreclosure. I feel sorry for the poor old guy, I know he lived high on the hog for most of his life, but no one deserves to spend their golden years like that.

Things are changing way too fast for me, and not in the right way either.

Don

I just watched a specialinst on cnbc. He says by july 4th 2008 gas will be an average of 5.00 a gallon. I may have to break out the bicycle after all. Also does or does not George Bush own the land that has the largest oil reserve in the U.S. ?

I saw that also about $5.00 by July 4th, he also mentioned $1.20 but I didn't understand what year he said, could he have said 2005.

Originally Posted by ford2custom

Is this insane or what? I think the next President should 100 days to get a grip on what is going on or kick him out.

I sure as heck don't see what 1 single person, president or not, could possibly do to solve the problem.... The problem is one that is way beyond the scope of what the president (whomever it is) could possibly hope to solve....

Prices are up and down here too. On Average 4.15-4.19 for reg. High as 4.26+ some days. I see some stations charging more for debit/credit purchases lately. Like .20-.25 cents a gal more depending on the grade!! Some stations here can't even afford to buy gas and are closing. 110 oct racing here is $9.98 a gallon. Leaded or unleaded. Man if we hit $5 by July 4th that just SUCKS!!!

If a President could start a war I think he could do a little to help with the high oil prices.

Starting a war is much easier then solving the oil problem.... Going to take a whole lot more action and resolve to lower our usage and the price of oil. Our dependancy on foreign oil is one of the major issues. Now if somehow the treehuggers would get the heck out of the way and let us drill for our own oil in our own country....And maybe Congress could put up some incentives for the oil companies so that it is worth the investment to build some new and more efficient refineries.... That is if the environmentalists would stay out of the way and let the oil companies actually build a refinery....

Until recently the average Joe insisted on driving an SUV that gets 12 mpg instead of a smaller car that gets 30...... The flight to the suburbs which began in the 60's created 50 or more mile one way commutes for people in the big cities....then they overcrowd the freeway's into town with only 1 person per car because public transportation isn't "convenient" for them and it's their "right" to drive their car.

The oil companies are publicly held companies and the corporate officers are accountable to the stockholders... Their mission is to turn a profit and an acceptable return on investment for the stockholders and do all this on a very small margin.... As our oil consumption increases, the margin remains the same but the volume increases, the oil companies make money and the investors make money. This is ok for GE, but not for Shell????? I would never have been able to keep the doors open on my shop if I had to realize a profit margin as small as what the oil companies operate on.... Sure, they earn billions in profits, but only because of the huge volume of product they go through.....

The US consumers demand that goods and merchandise are on the shelves when they want them with no delays, so the railroads were for the most part done away with and trucking companies sprang up everywhere promising quicker shipping.... So now we have 100 trucks on the road at 6 mpg instead of 1 freight train....

We have met the enemy, and it is us!!!!! Whomever our new president is would have to have one heck of a powerful magic want to even began to solve these and all the other issues that go into the rising price of fuel..... Don't think it'll happen.....

I'm on the cell phone with my older sister, so it's hard to read and talk at the same time but your right Dave, this thing can not be fixed very easy. Just real quick one thing I can't understand is how the big automakers, and the oil companies could not have worked together to make things better.

Richard

Well, they could have....but they produced what the customer wanted, big SUV's... which is why there have been 4 plant closings announced recently which all produced pickups and SUV's.... Because no one believed gas would be $4.00 a gallon and now they can't afford it!!!!!! The Prius, when you find one on the lot, are going for over sticker and the Yukon's are sitting there gathering dust and costing the dealership big $$$$$ in floor plan interest. If the consumer's had WANTED smaller and more fuel efficient cars, the manufacturer's would have built them.... As I said before, the oil companies are in the business of supplying fuel and returning a profit to the shareholders of the company.... As long as people keep buying fuel at whatever price is on the pump, the government has tied the oil companies hands behind their back and blindfolded them with senseless regulations preventing exploration, drilling, and new refineries....

The US consumer is spoiled, that's all... They want the best of everything and they want it all right now.... When it doesn't work out for their budget then it's someone else's fault.... Interest rates too high on credit cards??? You betcha! But people still get all of them they can and max them out....Heard a statistic that the average debt in credit cards alone is $15,000.00!!!!! Add a mortgage to that (for a house with a lot of "wow factor" to impress people), 2 SUV's in the garage both with payments, both parents working, and $00.00 in savings....Then add a $1.50 to the price of gas, somebody gets layed off, and their entire life falls apart.

Mortgage foreclosures, fuel prices, and this month a -49,000 jobs in the "new job" market and now people want to sit back and wait for the government to fix it!!!!!!! There is no magic cure all. Getting back to the basics, living within your means, saving for the future, and taking some personal responsibility for improving one's lot in life is the only thing that is going to fix anything.... The government broke it and the bureaucrats and politicians all have from mid 5 figure to six figure incomes to sit around and talk about it. Don't expect them to change anything that would have an adverse effect on their own "position". Why in the world would they even want to fix it when they are the only one's who benefit from it?????

I don't know, maybe we're all just finally getting exactly what we deserve.............

I don't know if we "deserve" it but there are allot of good points there.....

Funny thing, though..... My Wife and I employ 29 people in our little business and all of a sudden everyone seems to be taking their job a little more seriously.
Kinda nice for a change.

DT

Damn Dave, you got it pegged! And Dogtag< i know what you mean, i am willing to take any decent job! Never before have i been scared about work, ive always had any job i wanted, now its slim pickins.