Gasoline.
 

Paid $2.96 a gallon Sunday. A quick look show none below $2.91 hereabouts - yet.

Pete

I paid $3.63 per gallon (8 cents+ for using CC) but prices here like Chicago tends to be one of the nation's highest. Watch out, Hummers may make a comeback.

Saw $2.90 yesterday. Recent demand below expectations. Production cuts will soon drive prices up.

Heard on the commie NPR today that OPEC says no way, they will not cut production.

They also said fracking in the US is largely behind world oversupply.

What do I know :shrug: I hope it hits a buck.

Pete

Strike while the iron is hot and bump the fuel tax rate by bringing it inline with inflation.

No

this is the new economy with shale oil and fracking.
Saudi Arabia is planning to cut prices as a matter of fact.
Think about it...ISIS destabilizing the Middle East and prices are still dropping.
That would not have happened even 5 years ago.

I absolutely agree.

We should jack up the gas tax to where it is in western Europe.

That's what I would do if I were dictator.

Jack, jack, jack, jack, jack, jack, jack.

Our gas tax goes nowhere near paying for the negative impacts of the American love affair with Land Yachts.

I'd make these big ass 4X4 pickem up truck and SUV drivers feel some serious pain.

The same goes for Truckers.

It's about time they started paying their own way.

Sales tax is regressive, it affects the poor the worst.

Pete

This should also be an lesson to lefties about what the actual drivers are of oil prices. Has nothing to do with who is in the White House or which president has friends at "big oil." It always has been, and always will be, about supply and demand. Period. End of story.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102084062

The abrupt acceleration of an over 26 percent slide in prices since June was triggered by three news items that epitomized the market's turn: a downgrade in global oil consumption forecasts; projections for another big boost in shale oil; and reluctance by OPEC members to cut output.

Oil is struggling to find a floor after Saudi Arabia made clear that it was focused on maintaining market share, not supporting prices with unilateral production cuts.

Other members appear to be taking a similar tack. A source familiar with oil policy in Iran, normally one of the first in OPEC to call for production cuts, followed Kuwait in saying there was no need to rein in supplies.

"I think it's just continued the rationalization that all signs continue to suggest that OPEC is not going to do much," said Dominick Chirichella, senior partner at the Energy Management Institute, New York.

...and its that part that I bolded above as one significant reason why OPEC doesn't want to cut production and the Saudis are saying they want to "maintain market share."

Fixed it for you...

Are you ignoring the significant work that has been done on the demand side of the equation?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/29/bu...ards.html?_r=0

http://www.caranddriver.com/features...cafe-standards

So?

This is your chance to stick it to the 47% that are "takers".

Isn't that what you baggers want?

It sounds far better if one believes that this was accomplished without any regulation and purely by market forces. There is a nasty acronym that some on the right are not very fond of, CAFE. Of course if OPEC drives down the price of oil to a level where shale oil and fracking are no longer profitable, it could get interesting.

Long term trend to EV's and electricity generation using natural gas can make the US closer to becoming energy independent.

The article I posted quoted the factors that the market analysts believe are impacting prices. Now, there's no question that demand is down, but the drivers for the reduction in demand that are impacting current pricing are apparently not, for example, pending CAFE standards. From the article:


Weak Europe weighs Brent

The IEA's supply forecast is "piling on'' already weak economic data from Europe, said analyst Phil Flynn of Prices Futures Group in Chicago. " Numbers out of Europe show deflationary pressures are extending even into the UK."

Germany's economy could shrink in the third quarter, but any recession, as defined by two or more consecutive quarters of declining output, should not last long, the chief economist of think tank ZEW said.

And the current economic downturn in Europe resulted from their "austerity" approach to recovery from the last downturn (the incorrect approach also supported by the GOP).

Yep, stupid is as stupid does. :)

Europe is real smart...it imposes sanctions in time of recession.

I hear you!

Oh absolutely. I just didn't realize we were together on this :D

Pete

Funny how success = spending ;) Europe certainly couldn't be faltering under the weight of too much taxation, regulation and other government interference.

Pete

Greece was a typical example.

If the price of a barrel falls enough to make shale and fracking unprofitable, will the response be a tax on cheap oil, let the market play out, or fracking shale subsidies? Given the chimera of energy independece my money would be on subsidies.

$3.32/ gallon for midgrade here, yesterday.

Mike, you're right about the price and presidential involvement. I knew that and expressed it even when Happy Clown Bush was busy f**king up everything he touched. So, if it goes back up and anyone blames Obama.......I take the gloves off.

Dave

No, Europe is faltering under the odiferous stench of moldy cheeses.

Dave

LMAO!!

Pete

I filled up last Wednesday when it was 3.13 (the sign said 312.9), but I refuse to acknowledge their ridiculous tenth of a cent game. The next day it started to drop and it's now down to 2.86. :mad:

Yep. Velveeta gives us an edge.;)

Government cheese!

Pete

That's more like it.

I was a bit skeptical over your sudden concern for the poor.

So what?

It's Nacho Cheese.

They're gonna fix that problem by extra taxes and fees on electric cars, hybrids, and bicycles that use the roads and don't pay their respective share because they don't buy enough gas.

I can get behind that surprisingly. Those dang Segue Ways, too. ;)

As long as it's proportional to the negative impacts created by the vehicles in question.

For example the negative impact of one redneck in a V-8 4X4 pick-up is equivalent to the negative impact of 22,752 tree huggers on bikes so for every dollar that a tree hugger on a bike pays, a redneck in a V-8 4X4 should pay $22,752.

I hear they're real chick magnets.

http://i843.photobucket.com/albums/z...e-rossi-01.jpg

They got those Segue-mobiles for people that weigh 500 lbs?

We'll need them, by and by, if we all give up walking.....

It's now down to $2.80 here and I still have almost half a tank.

I usually get gas when it gets to 1/4.

By then it will probably be back up to 3.49. :mad:

So is that 1/4 tank habit encoded in your genes or something? You might want to see about adjusting your behavior to these possibly-fleeting circumstances. :)

Save a sawbuck, buy some more cigars!

We gassed up both cars yesterday at $!.649 courtesy of Giant and Shell.

Those evil corps Rob? :o

Sorry I slipped. I'll do better next time :)

Pete

It's a standard I've developed over time. In my young and stupid days I used to push it to the "E" and beyond, but after a number of long walks for gas in the hot Florida sun I got cured of that. And since I never carried a gas can in my car you would also have to beg one from the gas station. They might loan you one if you leave a deposit of maybe 10 times what the can was worth. But nowadays with all the gas stations being at convenience stores I suppose you would just have to buy one, if they had any for sale. Plus the habit of running near empty a lot tends to cause condensation and eventually rust to build up in your tank. You haven't lived until you've driven a vehicle that is subject to sputtering and conking out without notice due to shit in your gas tank.

So that's where I got the "Fill up when it hits 1/4" standard.

As for topping it off before that, well that's a waste. Every time you stop for gas takes time, and time is money. Add to that I always pay with a credit card at the pump and every time you use plastic you run the risk of some kind of identity theft. So I try to keep gas stops to a minimum. The only time I'll top it off when it's above 1/4 is if there is a Hurricane a few days out and there's a decent chance of not being able to get gas for a while after it hits.

As for saving a sawbuck, my car has an 18.5 gallon tank. Generally my fill-ups are around 14 gallons. That means it takes a 7 cent price differential to save about one buck. To save a sawbuck I'd need a 70 cent price differential.

I don't ever go out of my way to fill up. I know people that will drive halfway across town to save a nickel a gallon. That's a cost of 10 bucks in time and money to save one buck. That's fucken crazy. I want the station to be on my side of the road, and I want it to have easy in, easy out access and no waiting. I know people that will cross to the opposite side of a busy six lane highway to save 2 cents a gallon. That's 28 cents for me. That's also fucken crazy.

Americans are fucking weird about gas prices. A three cent a gallon differential is a big fucken deal to most people. That about 1% of the price of gas. On most other purchases people won't even bat an eye at a 1% price differential.

Well, it all depends on the facts on the ground, Tom. A large enough and fleeting enough savings might warrant a one-off change in policy. But I often just go with doing what i always do. It's easier than thinking about it.