Gothamist: $3.99/Gallon Gas Shocks Drivers

GM

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:51:59 -0500

There's talk of suspending the federal gas tax which is like 15 cents a gallon and to stop filling up the oil reserves for another 5 cent saving. So that means we get 5% gas savings at $4 gas. Alright! Thank goodness we have such forward thinkers in washington! You know, if we had a real emergency, we wouldn't be prepared... yet again. If we carpooled with a co-worker suddenly $4 gas doesn't seem so expensive. Most of these miles people put on their cars are between work anyway. People are laaaaaaaazy. MTA - MOVE THAT ASS!

sonyactivision

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:17:20 -0500

Huge, trillion dollar speculative bubble that will damage many smaller economies around the world before an "adjustment" occurs. We can afford this ride...think of the ones who can't.

Akit

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:46:10 -0500

Come join San Francisco as the king of high gas prices. Some places have already peaked, but we are getting there shortly. Also, think about how your pay for your gas... have you ever considered using a rewards credit card? My Amex card from Costco gets me 3% back, but you might be able to get back even more if you dig around... say 5%?

Austin Baird

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:27:45 -0500

For what it's worth I'm paying $10 a gallon here in England :(

sakebalboa

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:48:00 -0500

GOOD, less people on the road.

JenChungsBra

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:26:34 -0500

Welcome to the real world Neo. Gas costs more than this and has for a long time in very many places. The real problem is that this country has invested massively in a way of life which is totally unsustainable. We can't keep building one-family homes in former cornfields in ever expanding circles farther and farther away from any goods or services. We can't keep commuting 80 miles a day in single-person automobiles of any kind, SUV or not. We can't sustain strip malled-suburbia for much longer. Those places are going to become the slums of tomorrow while city real estate prices will keep going up, up, up. It's already happening right now: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89803663

PBRK

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:11:01 -0500

High oil doesn't just effect people who drive cars- most everything in the US is transported to consumers with the help of oil. So everyone stops consuming, and the economy as a whole slows down.

Tim N.

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:00:09 -0500

Why be shocked? We elected the guy. Every person in America had to know this was going to happen. This is our country now.

Headzo

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:51:01 -0500

...and also. why should oil companies lower the price of oil? It's market demand. Gas is more expensive than ever and people are using more of it than ever. Why should they lower their prices? That's just bad business.

Headzo

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:49:00 -0500

If gas is so expensive, why don't people just use less of it? It seems pretty simple to me. If I can't afford something, I just use it less, or don't buy it at all. Does anyone consider that they could trade in their SUV for a Civic and instantly cut their gas bill in half?

drewo

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:43:48 -0500

You take away those profits and you take away their incentive to search for that black gold we all have grown to love. You mean that to which we all have grown addicted. Like any junkie, Americans will forgo clothing and food to feed the addiction of their automobiles. And the Saudis, Venezuelans and Big Oil profiteers are all laughing at our inability to control or question our addiction. Let's suspend tax subsidies to Big Oil (who had record profits last year) and use that money to invest in a realistic long-term alternative renewable energy program (of course that would require intelligent leadership in Washington). Oil is king because our government and industry has spent trillions of dollars and decades of R&D on producing oil. If we spend that time and money on alternative, renewable, domestic-based sources of energy, perhaps in 30 years we'll having something to show for it.

Kojak

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:37:00 -0500

Maybe only then should the Govt place sanctions on Oil companies for purposely restriction supply, especially when it damages the economy. But then a lot of these price spikes are said to be due to speculation by investors, regardless of supply. They're using commodities such as Oil as a hedge against the dollar and the shitty economy. Every little thing that happens in the supply chain seems to spook investors and price goes upupup. Sometimes the free market can suck.

Ph

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:34:31 -0500

Oh well, 10 more bucks a tank. Like I give a fuck, I can afford it.

arsguide

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:31:40 -0500

for 30 years it made sense that there would be legislation mandating cars get an higher and higher miles per gallon - instead we let the auto companies profit by selling irresposnsible small sized trucks to every tom, dick and harry, now gas is 4.00 a gallon. I dont even blame the schmoos who were buying suvs when gas was a dollar a gallon - I blame the govt and the lobbiest that have hocked so much of our future for profits and now turn to us, without a decent national transist system, without a decent alternative to high mpg cars and lay the blame and responsibilty for this mess on the average man.

Snoopy

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:23:25 -0500

Jaja is just an opportunist. Don't rank on him.

EastRiver

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:23:17 -0500

I find it ironic that someone mentioned that oil crisis of 30 years ago and that most of you are using the 30 year old argument against the oil companies. Big integrated oil companies like ExxonMobil, Shell, BP etc have steadily lost control of oil reserves to governments and state owned or controlled entities. Governments like Venezuela and Iran have been taking their profits and spending them on social programs in an attempt to placate the masses and hold onto power. While I'm not going to argue against social spending entirely I will point out that oil extraction is a capital intensive business and requires massive investment just to maintain the wells you do have and not taking expansion into consideration. Oil production is falling in many places and it's not just because we've reached "Peak Oil". And now that China and India are using more oil there is less spare capacity which obviously creates higher price spikes in the markets. And for the first time OPEC is actually acting like a cartel and sticking to their production quotas. In the past they almost all cheated which led to falling prices. But hey, let's just blame one guy, George Bush, and pray everything changes on January 20, 2009.

TK

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:20:16 -0500

FYI - If/when Hillary/Obama get elected in November, gas prices wont magically fall back to $1 per gallon.

Steven

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:57:11 -0500

All the media does is talk, talk, talk, and talk some more about the high gas prices. What is actually being done about the high gas prices? What is our government doing? It's all a bunch of GREED.GREED.GREED.

PBRK

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:55:03 -0500

I guess I was misleading in my 6 years to build. They have been sitting on the rights since 1977.

jaja007

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:51:31 -0500

nothing like making money off companies who break the back of the average American I'm making money off pieces of paper that people are willing to pay more and more for. Just because I own these stocks does that mean I advocate their business? Does owning Philip Morris/Altria mean I condone smoking? Does owning GM (not that I ever would buy auto stocks!!) mean I believe in gas guzzlers? Puulllleeeezzzzz... Get off your moral high horse.

trp

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:49:44 -0500

You guys have it easy, it reached $4.29 for 87 here in LA. See: http://viewfromaloft.typepad.com/viewfromaloft/2008/04/priced-to-sell.html

Politburo

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:48:35 -0500

Kojak - I mostly agree, but there's nothing that forces the oil companies to use profits for R&D. In fact, the oil companies really have little to gain from expanding production. Increasing crude supply would decrease the supply pressures on the market and would lead to a drop in prices.

JMH

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:47:01 -0500

Or maybe you guys can stop complaining and buy some oil stocks and benefit like I have. SLB up 440% last 5 years RIG up 680% last 5 years XOM up 170% last 5 years HAL up 350% last 5 years Of course this doesn't even take into account the dividend reinvest. At least I know how I'm gonna be paying $4.50/gal.Which is wonderful for people who have money to invest, but it doesn't do much for people who don't.

jaja007

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:45:34 -0500

drove by a gas station on the Palisades last night and their regular gas was over $4.00. Premium was in the $4.30's. A few miles down, right before the GWB, they had regular in the $3.30's. That's because the station selling @ $4.00 is in New York and $3.30 is in Jersey. Yes... Palisades goes through both states.

WesleySnipesAlot

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:35:16 -0500

well done on your investments... nothing like making money off companies who break the back of the average American... but your not a shark, just a lamprey, so don't worry... I am sure you will sleep just fine on your pile of money.

Kojak

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:34:08 -0500

"Does it really take six years to build an oil well?" Yes, sometimes it takes more than 10 years. Its enormously expensive to extract oil, even now so as the newest large fields are now harder to reach. I'm in the minority here im sure, but we shouldnt windfall tax Big Oil. They need those profits for R&D for exploration and extraction. You take away those profits and you take away their incentive to search for that black gold we all have grown to love.

jack144

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:32:25 -0500

I drove by a gas station on the Palisades last night and their regular gas was over $4.00. Premium was in the $4.30's. A few miles down, right before the GWB, they had regular in the $3.30's. I always wondered who would fill up at that first station, they're always so overpriced.

jaja007

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:26:55 -0500

Politburo

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:22:41 -0500

Karen - While various lobbies have likely stifled some progress, you're ignoring some basic physical facts. Petrochemicals are an extremely efficient energy storage method, and that is why they are so difficult to replace with batteries. Charging a set of automotive batteries in the time it takes to fill a fuel tank would require a large amount of current and would be an inherently dangerous operation, much moreso than gasoline dispensing (which is really quite safe unless you are in a movie).

kapusta

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:16:42 -0500

what's important here is ...W(steward of the empire) is doing an excellent job. job no.1: maintaing the uninterurpted flow of that cheap mideast oil (cheap is the cost of pulling oil out of the ground...mideast oil is the cheapest on the planet) job no. 2: making himself(sorry) HIMSELF and his rich friends richer (that's the price us de-evolved sucker taxpayers are paying at the pump)

NYSofMind

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:15:52 -0500

I notice the Citgo sign in the background... Citgos frequently charge more than other gas stations, because Citgo is entirely owned by the Venezuelan government and is forced to use oil from Venezuela, which is sulfur-rich and costs mroe to refine. No, it isn't good that a gas station is charging this much, but keep it in perspective-- Citgo's the worst.

TSOL

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:15:42 -0500

I didn't notice the gas prices as I biked into Manhattan from Brooklyn...

PBRK

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:12:36 -0500

Don't forget to blame the oil companies more interested in securing rights to new development sites instead of developing the sites they already have rights to. Exxon proposed bringing oil and gas out of Point Thompson by 2014. Does it really take six years to build an oil well? Now they will sue Alaska for rejecting the ridiuculous timetable and delay any development even further.

Politburo

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:10:41 -0500

I wonder how much gas the reporters use driving around to find the station with the highest price... what a waste of effort. We all know gas is expensive. The media is covering this like they cover snowstorms: And now over to Jackie in Morristown, where gas is also expensive! Exclusive team coverage of expensive gas from CBS2..

Karen

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:09:44 -0500

Here in Ft Wayne, its $3.77/gal. 30 years ago, we had a gas crunch. That was when the Big 3 automakers and the government should have put their heads and money together, to come up with an affordable, workable electric car. One that would run as long as a gas powered car does on a tank of gas. One that had a small economical battery. People keep telling me, the electric batteries required to run such a car, would be too big, too costly. Well, look at cell phones and pocket calculators, when they first came out. Remember how big and expensive they were? Now, you get a free one, when you open up a bank account, or a contract from a cell phone company. And, look at the size of them now-both can go as small or smaller than a credit card. I find it hard to beleive, that in 30 years, SOMEONE couldn't have come up with a battery that would run a car, that would be small, affordable, and would work. All that would remain, would be to convert gas stations, to electric stations, where to fully charge a battery, would take as long as it would to fill a tank of gas. Local electric companies would have loved to have this! But...there's the oil companies, and thier lobbyists. There's politicians like Bush and Cheney, who would stand to loose some of thier cushy yearly bonuses, if they'd stayed in the oil business. Hell, as long as there's plastic, there's gonna be a business for oil, so they'd be gettting something!

JacqueMehoff

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:08:08 -0500

Gas was mostly hovering around 3.99 in Manhattan. so, it's not like it would not spread to the outer boroughs.

famdoc

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:04:34 -0500

We'll be paying $4.50 a gallon by July 4. Thanks, Mr. Bush, your war is working. Our children and grandchildren will be paying for your war for decades to come. And that $4.50 gallon of milk? Thanks for making it more expensive to feed our families.

Reality Czech

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:03:04 -0500

Anyone who is shocked by this is a vapid moron who is out of touch with reality.

Ethan

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:59:08 -0500

The Surge is working!!

edEx

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:52:49 -0500

surprise? ha! this is the tip of the iceberg.